On the Gandalf powers thing, in the book he also blasted a bunch of goblins with lightning when they first snuck into the cave.
Anyway, finally got around to seeing it tonight, really enjoyed it. I was worried the extra stuff would feel tacked on, but I really enjoyed it for the most part, Radagast's scenes were really good imo, though the Rabbit sled was a bit cheesy, and the bird shit dripping down his face the whole time looked gross. But I'm glad they landed on a characterization that wasn't 'hippy gandalf.'
Especially loved the scenery. The reason Fellowship is my favorite of the LOTR movies is all the amazing scenery, forests and mountains, whereas 2 & 3 are very grim and grey, lots of rock and empty flat land. I know it makes sense in the context, but it still doesn't make for fun watching. Since Hobbit is set in the same general area as Fellowship I was excited for more of the same, and they didn't disappoint.
Only a few complaints. As everyone has said, the first hour or so dragged on a bit, especially since it felt a little repetitive after they gave the backstory in the intro. Goblin King's voice was really annoying. The fight with the white orc at the end was really anticlimatic, Thorin does this massive charge with epic music, then gets whooped in 10 seconds, and they never even kill the orc. Some of the humor fell kind of flat.
Otherwise I loved it, The Hobbit is actually my favorite Tolkien book by a wide margin, so I was worried about all the changes, but they were handled really well, the writers did a great job tying them into the main story. In fact it felt a lot like what The Hobbit would have been if it was written after LOTR, instead of before. And of course the scenes with Gollum were amazing.
is it just me, or is whoever designed the mountain kingdom a huge Dragon Age: Origins fan?