My feelings exactly.

Maybe the worst winking at the audience moment of the millennium. At least "Noooooo!" and "KHAAAN!" I can laugh at afterwards.

And what the hell was up with CG Billy Connolly? Horrible, distracting work there.

List:

1. The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Two Towers
3. The Desolation of Smaug
4. The Return of the King
5. An Unexpected Journey
6. The Battle of the Five Armies

I watched all three Hobbit films yesterday. How exhausting, I won't be watching these films again any time soon.

I enjoyed this installment. It's bloated and a lot of it feels superfluous as I didn't really care about the battles that did not involve the main characters, but the chunk of the film that works is fun.

You're either crazy or trying way too hard to be a contrarian.

Let's go with crazy.

Return of the King was my favourite on first viewing but has since dropped to third for me. The Extended Edition has its problems that the theatrical did not (and the EE is all I have). On the other hand the TTT : EE is far superior to the theatrical.

That said - im surprised David has it below Smaug which is the most disappointing of the lot (havnt seen Battle yet) for me.

I'd rank them:

1. Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Two Towers (Extended Edition)
3. Return of the King
4. An Unexpected Journey
5. Desolation of Smaug

In the end - it sounds that Jackson should have released two Hobbit films only - AUJ + TABA as originally intended.

I wonder what Guillermo del Toro's thoughts are on the now-complete Hobbit trilogy, particularly since he received a screenwriting credit for each film.

Hopefully he loathes the final product. That would make up for Pacific Rim.

My first thought when the film was over was that I've had enough of Middle Earth for a long time now.

I see a pattern there.

What's your problem with the EE of ROTK?

What if Lee Pace's elf has to ride his reindeer through a tight space?

I am a big fan of these films, but the Hobbit is a C franchise compared to the LOTR A franchise.

I think this would have been much better as a single film. I know someone will edit them down eventually, and I look forward to seeing that.

At least it only had one ending.

The scene with other hobbits auctioning Bilbo's belongings screams, "Should have saved this for the extended edition." It nearly ruins the magic of his return to the Shire.

I was a bit disappointed. This one just felt incomplete, rushed, and disconnected.

I was anticipating The White Council scene to be a lot better, and longer, than what was included. It's maybe a 3 minute scene? Seeing Galadriel unleash her power and use Nenya was nice... but underwhelming, too. Hopefully we see them arrive properly upon Dol Guldor in the extended edition. It looks like the first half of this was cut.

And while the film looks pretty, the CGI isn't going to hold up in the years to come. There are many, many scenes where it's quite obvious where everything is CG, from the characters, the landscapes (really?), and more. The scene where Thorin and company leave Erebor to join the battle was very glaring to me. It's totally obvious their surroundings, even the ground, is CG.

Still... I love Middle Earth. The action, and there's a lot of that here, is good if kinda silly at times. None of these battles compare that of Helms Deep or, especially, The Fields of Pelennor, though. Thorin and Azog's battle on the ice was, I think, unintentionally funny at moments when it shouldn't have been in the slightest. The score remains strong, and I can't have enough of "Feast of Starlight" and "Kingsfoil". The inclusion of Tauriel into the storyline receives mixed responses, but she's one of my favorite things about THe Hobbit trilogy.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (A)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (A)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (A+)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (B+)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (A-)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (B)

My ranking of all the Middle Earth films...

1. Fellowship of the Ring A+

2. Return of the King A
3. The Two Towers A
* these two are really close, but there are more awesome scenes in ROTK.

4. Desolation of Smaug B+
5. An Unexpected Journey B+

6. Battle of the Five Armies B (it's still Middle Earth, I can't go lower than that.)

Agreed.

As far a the awful shoehorning of mentioning Strider, it would have been so much better to have a scene just outside the Shire after Bilbo and Gandalf part ways with Gandalf and Strider, with Gandalf asking Aragorn to watch over the shire. That would have made the connection and been true to the Ranger history in the books. Even if he couldn't get Viggo, just have someone in a cloak who he refers to as Strider. Easy enough.

I do not know how exactly, and perhaps it would only further undermine what is already a disjointed film, but part of me wishes we could have seen Gollum one more time. Perhaps a scene showing him overcoming his fear of the goblins to leave the cave and pursue Bilbo.

Beyond the three- or four-minute scene with Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, and Hugo Weaving, this film does not do too much to foreshadow The Lord of the Rings, which previously seemed the second or third priority of the Hobbit trilogy. (Remember, for instance, the lengthy conversations during the stopover at Rivendell in An Unexpected Journey.)

I want to meet the person who decided the first ten minutes of this film belonged in this film and not where it rightfully belonged on the second film.

You know for all the negativity in this movie, there was some things that worked as well as anything in the entire saga, mainly anything involving Thorin and Bilbo

Peter Jackson is a genius. He knows Tolkien saps will drool over whatever shitty 3 hour movie he makes, so why not make 3 shitty drawn out movies instead of two, or god forbid, one?

Unfortunately, I am a huge fan of the Hobbit book and the Lord of the Rings movies (hate the books) and I enjoyed this movie, but I can't imagine anyone else will. The beginning with the dragon is obviously the standout here. The rest of the movie is just a lot of action inter cut with a little plot. The stuff with Thorin and Bilbo is very interesting, but I still don't really care about Kate from Lost's love triangle with Legolas who is unnecessarily shoehorned into this movie and dwarf#4 "The hunky one".

Among the highlights are the action (at first at least). Peter Jackson really knows how to do exciting action scenes, But then there are more and more and more and eventually numbed to it. And when people finally start to die an hour and a half into the movie, you don't care nearly as much as you should. Billy Connoly is great with the little he is given, and the final showdown with Azog (who shouldn't even be a character in these movies) is well done. I can't believe Kate lived considering how many cliffs she fell off of and hit her head countless times. Not to mention she isn't in Lord of the Rings, and they don't kill her here.

I liked one derivation from the book where Bilbo gave the elves and men the Arkenstone as a peace offering. I also liked the auction scene at the end it was cute.

Non book fans, steer clear! Book fans, be sure to go to the bathroom first

B-

1. The Return of the King- A+
2. The Fellowship of the Ring- A+
3. The Two Towers- A+
4. An Unexpected Journey- A-
5. The Desolation of Smaug- B+
6. The Battle of the Five Armies- B-

A very strong blockbuster. The fighting and deaths once Thorin and company climb north is near perfect action filmmaking for me. I also greatly enjoyed everything involving gold hungry Thorin and the other groups trying to bargain with him.

The last 15 minutes kind of didn't stick the landing however this is likely improved upon in the EE. I didn't feel like there was a definitive enough "the battle's over" moment nor was the big picture implications in terms of showing us the dwarves, elves, humans and treasure after the fight delved on much. That's in addition to some other stuff like the lack of Bard and Alfred resolution in the last 1/3 of the film and general "how did Thorin end up in his back fighting for his life here?" moments in the middle of the fighting

Smaug's scene is definitely anti-climactic, obviously for financial reasons they had to leave it as a hook for film 3, but perhaps they should've just repeated the last few minutes of Desolation of Smaug's ending to set up the battle

Overall find Bilbo and Thorin more compelling than their LOTR counterparts along with feeling more emotionally connected to some other characters like Tauriel and I'm more impressed with the action scenes in the Hobbit films. So I prefer the Hobbit trilogy of the two though FOTR is close to their level. TTT and ROTK do little for me.

1. The Desolation of Smaug
2. An Unexpected Journey
3. The Battle of the Five Armies
4. The Fellowship of the Ring
5. The Return of the King
6. The Two Towers

There are opinions and all, but MAN...