My friend Jason came through for me again. I told him I planned to go see “The HOBBIT” on my birthday next week and he called a friend and hooked me up with passes to the press screening last night. (Thanks again J, you ROCK!)

I don’t do spoilers, so I won’t give away any plot points. I will say that I had some concerns going in. Chief among them the question of how to expand a single (slim) book into three movies. Asuming that the next two are the equal of this one, the answer is: brilliantly…. for the most part. There were a couple of bits I wasn’t totally on side with, but not enough to spoil the overall experience.

The much hyped 3D / 48 frames per second technology rendered the trademark visuals just that much more luscious. New Zealand is still the most beautiful star in the film. The Weta teams, both virtual and physical are once again clearly at the top of their game. Overall production quality is still astonishingly high and one expects nothing less.

I won’t say any more on it until it has been in wide release for a while. Suffice to say, I plan to see it again while it is in theaters. Then begins the long wait for part two.

Long story short… The “HOBBIT” Rules!

Cheers, Winston