It's clear the films are intended to try as wring as many dollars as possible from this thing, hence the technical gimmicks of 3D and 48-frame resolution, the padding to try to increase the length, and the silly set-piece action/slap-stick.

I saw the 3D, 48-frame version, which neither add or subtract in my view, in other words, they are just gimmicks. 3D is 3D, never really adds much, the 48-frames I didn't think made much difference either.

Then there is the silly action scenes, not in the books, which are just like a dumb video game really. You had some of these pointless scenes in LotR as well, which, the more often you see them, the more you realize they stick out like sore-thumbs.

That said, the lore and details of the Tolkien world are explored in depth by Jackson, with lovingly crafted backstories, so I didn't actually mind the length. In fact, Tolkien geeks will like this. The characters are good fun, especially Bilbo, as well as the dwarves. The riddle scene with Gollum and Bilbo is definitely brilliant, thats the high-light of the movie.

Still enjoyable.