Watch this now: Trailer for The Hobbit (part 1)

Make no mistake, I love the Lord of the Rings movies. But I've been skeptical about the upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit. Does it really need to be split into two movies? And what's with shoehorning in characters from LOTR who weren't in the book of The Hobbit (we see Galadriel in the trailer, and I've heard rumors that Legolas and even Saruman (!!) will be in it as well).

At any rate, the trailer is here and it's a weird mix of the new and the familiar, and is a little too vague for my taste - shouldn't we mention the reason for Bilbo's adventure? And what about Smaug? However, I do like the fact that most of the dwarves don't look like Doc and Sleepy.

I'll reserve final judgment until the film's actually showing (next year), but for now I'm cautiously optimistic.