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Just saw the matinee yesterday in 3D. I liked it a great deal. It was two hours and forty-five minutes but didn't seem so. The movie ripped along at a good solid pace and only bogged down a handful of places and not much there. And I checked the novel, the first movie ends at about page 117, just slightly past one-third of the novel.
Only real stuff added to the story was Sylvester McCoy as Ragagast the Brown, but hey it's a former Doctor so who can complain too much here! This part did seem to be setting up the movie as a pre-sequel to the LotR movies.
The dwarves did come off as sorta comical other than the very serious Thorin and Balin. Still I don't think it was really any more silly than the way they were presented in the novel, which of course was a children's book. And any problems I have about them being semi-comic relief was countered in the way the dwarves in combat were totally badass.
Yes, the shakey-cam was cut down a great deal which was a big plus to me. One of my biggest gripes of modern movies was here in spades though- the whole 'guys thrown or falling five-hundred feet bouncing off rocks and stone walls but get up and dust themselves off without nary a scratch or bruise.' Last time I slide up and busted my tail on ice I was sore for a week. If you're bouncing off stone walls - sorry you're going to be jelly...
Still, maybe the biggest complaint I had was it seemed sorta well the same as the LotR movies, it seems less fresh now and more of the same. Still I'm not sure how you could have done them any differently. Frankly if you loved the LotR movies you'll love the Hobbit, if you hated them- don't waste your time here.