I caught a good deal of the press tour that some of the cast was doing in New York. One of the topics that kept coming up was how the movie was shot. And it's definitely cutting edge technology.
First, the frame rate. They decided to go for 48 FPS because that was a rate at which motion blur became minimized. 24 FPS has a long history, but it was based in economy. That was the lowest frame rate at which film could be projected without the viewer noticing the space between frames. Essentially, it was done in order to save film stock (and print stock, too). But during high speed movement 24 FPS will show motion blur. The 48 FPS specs eliminate a lot of that blur.
Then there's the resolution. The image resolution has been increased far beyond current HDTV standards. The images in The Hobbit will have 4 - 5 times more pixels than a standard 1080p HD image. So the image will be immensely sharper, too.
Add in the 3-D component next, and you're adding depth to the image.
As for viewer reviews? I heard one avid movie-goer describe it as being an amazing visual experience. One comparison I heard was that it was akin to watching a stage production, since the images were that vivid. Younger viewers who are active video gamers will probably be drawn more into the experience than people who have more traditional film tastes.