by Alex Billington December 19, 2014^[1]

Now that you've seen it, what did you think? "Will you follow me, one last time?" Peter Jackson presents his final (supposedly) adventure in Middle Earth, the conclusion of The Hobbit with The Battle of the Five Armies, now playing in theaters. Martin Freeman returns as Bilbo, who must figure out what's next after making his way into the mountain and escaping Smaug the Dragon. Richard Armitage as Thorin takes center stage, along with Luke Evans as Bard, Lee Pace as Thranduil, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, Evangeline Lilly as Tauriel, and of course Ian McKellen as Gandalf. So how is it? Better than the other two? Does it live up to the Lord of the Rings movies? Is it even worth seeing in theaters or not? Once you've seen it, leave a comment with your thoughts on PJ's grand finale The Battle of the Five Armies.^[2]

Spoiler Warning: We strongly urge everyone to actually see the film before reading ahead, as there may be spoilers below. We also encourage all commenters to keep major spoilers from the film to a minimum, if possible. However, this is an open discussion from this point on! Beware of spoilers, don't ruin this movie!

To let loose Dragon Fire, I will say that I think The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies might be the best in The Hobbit series (of movies), but it is still a long shot from anything in the Lord of the Rings trilogy in terms of overall cinematic storytelling quality. Yes, I hate making the necessary comparison so quickly, but it's all I can think about when I'm sitting through these movies. Especially when he keeps shoving Legolas in our face every few minutes. Honestly, I think Legolas gets more screentime than Bilbo does, which is a bit odd because - isn't it supposed to be his story all along? What little time with him we get is good. Eventually the big battle comes, there are a few stunning moments that do get close to PJ's Lord of the Rings roots, but by the end I'm not even that excited about seeing it again. Which is a bit sad, it should be a great experience.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh on The Hobbit, since I do still enjoy it but at the same time, I'm trying to love it and I'm just not falling in love with the characters as much as with LOTR. I still love Middle Earth, and I think Peter Jackson still does stand out from the crowd in the way he crafts the world, using New Zealand and elaborate, beautifully-constructed sets galore. But it doesn't amount to much, especially when there's so much CG embellishment throughout the rest of it. That's the problem, the film bounces all around, between a number of moments and characters and fights, but instead of giving enough time for us to feel for each of them, it's already moved on. Maybe I need to watch the Extended Edition of this one whenever it's finished.

What did YOU think of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies? Best one yet or the worst?We will remove any comments that indicate you have not seen the movie, as this area is meant to discuss the film only once you have seen it and can talk about your thoughts. Please keep the comments civilized!

Find more posts in Discuss, Hobbit, Sound Off^[3][4][5]

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References

1. ^{^} Posts by Alex Billington (www.firstshowing.net)
2. ^{^} supposedly (screenrant.com)
3. ^{^} Discuss (www.firstshowing.net)
4. ^{^} Hobbit (www.firstshowing.net)
5. ^{^} Sound Off (www.firstshowing.net)