I think the biggest problem with the Hobbit is that they split it into three films. If they had stuck with the original plan of two films, and undergone actually having to cut "good" scenes (who here hasn't had to do that to their book?), I think it would have been a much better set of films. While I didn't mind all the changes that they made, the movies could do with being a bit more concise and passing over parts that aren't as relevant, even if they were in the book. (As much as I loved Beorn in the book, he honestly just seemed out-of-place in the movie.) IMO, that would have made it seem a lot less like a huge-budget fan film, and more like a story that's also good on it's own without having to include all these scenes in the book to appease the fans (as well as all the extraneous scenes who I'm not sure whom they were supposed to please...)

There's a trailer for the third movie out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSzeFFsKEt4

I. Love. It!

Oi, gave me chills. *Looking forward to seeing how they wrap this up*

Can't wait!

It looks awesome. Can't wait either.

It looks like it will be great but.... It doesn't look like it will follow the book very well.

Fanfiction.... well, I'll have to remember that the next time I'm about to die of apoplexy or something because ANOTHER movie ruined a perfectly good book.

The first one is still the best, and I'm reserving judgement on the rest until the who series is out.

But Bard? If you edit it down, you should share it! *grins*

And I love how the trailer uses 'Edge of Night'. It's somber, and beautiful - in a way.

personally, I'm curious to see if Thorin will attempt to throw Bilbo off the side of Erebor's walls in the movie... And why that's in spoiler's, I don't really know considering as it's in the books... But still.

Who has been to see The Battle of the Five Armies? What were your thoughts on it?

I'll just say my thoughts are conflicted and can't easily be put into words.

I heard it was very tragic and many people died. Er, I mean, cried. Some characters died and the audience cried.

... o.o

Yeah. That's all.

NOOOOOOO, don't tell me - I haven't seen the movie yet!

If you've read the book, then you already know some characters died. And yes, they went through with it and made it into an excellent tragedy-of-sorts.
The story arc of Thorin in this movie was absolutely phenomenal and they did a great job with it. It left some to be desired, but all the movie adaptations have done that, and this one was no different. I feel like it will be much more well-rounded once we get the extended edition of this movie.

But even as it is in theatrical edition, I think it's easily the best out of the three Hobbits.

I loved it.

Not much more I can say without getting about a million death-threats from all you unfortunates who have not yet seen it....

Sorry. I didn't mean to gloat. It just sort of happened.....

Wow. I think it's wonderful to see that some people, especially fans of the book, liked the movie.

But I wasn't one of them. As far as Battle of the Five Armies goes...

As far as book adaptations go, it wasn't all that great. As far as movies go, it wasn't all that great. Bilbo and Thorin's reconciliation was the best part. The ending left much to be desired otherwise.

And what the what? Kili died for Tauriel instead of for Thorin, his king. WHAT. NO

Also, as far as movie goers are concerned, apparently Bard decided to keep the Arkenstone, instead of it being buried with Thorin.

I mostly liked what they did to show Thorin's madness, but the really slow, deep, weird parts where he's speaking were odd. And I loved the idea of him in the great hall, drowning in gold, but I don't know if it went too long or what, but I wasn't impressed with how it played out.

And Legolas. WHAT. WHAT. Just WUT. Hang gliding from a bat?!!! And what was that whole extra thing about his mother???? I mean, it was a great bit of character for him and his father, but...WHY was it there? It was just like "Oh, yeah, by the way, your mother loved you, so now you can go be a happy elf."

I have other issues, but I'm done for now. XD Let's end with this: I went home and reread the last twenty pages of The Hobbit to give me a sense of closure and satisfaction.

I hated all the things. Like, I can't even tell you what happened in the movie because my brain literally refused to retain such nonsense...

My philosophy about movie adaptations is to expect a different story based off the basic world and characters of a/the book.

So that way though compared to the book it's egh, if you look at it as its own piece of art, it's actually decent, maybe even good, as I thought this one was.

As purist as my Tolkien-loving mind wants me to be, I like to reframe the way I look at the movies as another way to tell a similar/same story - not an attempt at a virtual retelling of the exact same story.

If I didn't do that, I'd probably hate....er, well, extremely dislike, any movie based off any book.

Analyzing it from a book fan perspective, I came to the table with no expectations, having been rather disappointed with the second film rather greatly, but I wouldn't really call it particularly good work from an artistic perspective either... It had some elements of Hobbitry about it, but the showcasing of the CG was a tacky feature, Biblo never spoke but to give a moralizing speech, nearly every bit of plot tension was "no, don't do that!", and all of the characters were racial stereotypes.

There were some tidbits I gleaned for later worldbuilding, like the forming of ranks in dwarven battle lines and the pros and cons of various war steeds, and there were one or two scenes that really did the story justice, but overall, it wasn't even a well crafted film from an artistic or a plot based perspective.

Killing off Smaug before the title sequence? ...You know he was the central villain IN THE BOOK, right??

*flails wordlessly and throws flyswatters at Peter Jackson* Bad movie. Bad.

So, I finally got to see the last Hobbit film *yay* , and while I did enjoy it, I thought, personally, it was rushed. Especially the end. I think an extra few minutes were needed to flesh some things out, especially the big battle at the end. I kind of felt cheated with that.
All in all, though, it was good, and for me, the entire Hobbit series ranks above that of LOTR. Now, I can watch the whole thing from beginning to end.

Oh my, really?! I didn't think the Hobbit trilogy was anywhere near as good as LOTR! (Each to their own, of course, though!)

Actually, I'm having a hard time enjoying LOTR after seeing the Hobbit. I still like the series, but for me, the Hobbit was the best and truest presentation of Middle Earth. But yeah, to each their own. So far, it seems my sister and I are the only ones who prefer the Hobbit over LOTR.