I haven't seen The Hobbit yet, but I'm totally stoked for it. My boyfriend and I are planning to see it.
As for The Lord of the Rings being better than The Hobbit, that was not a mistake. The book The Hobbit was published in the 30s as a whimsical adventure story, and The Lord of the Rings was published in the 60s as more of a 'fairy tale for grown-ups' that expanded on the universe that was created in The Hobbit.
So if Lord of the Rings seems better than The Hobbit, it's because The Hobbit was created as a children's story, but The Lord of the Rings was written later, and with a much more mature audience in mind.