Hammer don't hurt me, unpopular opinion but I LOVE THE HOBBIT TRILOGY! I didn't watch this when it first came out, even though I watched the whole LOTR trilogy in the theater. Only finally got around to watching The Five Armies a couple weeks ago; we were introducing our 11yo to the classics so we watched the Anne Hathaway Les Miserables and LOTR and all three Hobbit films in chunks over the last few months.

I remember when The Hobbit first came out, I had zero interest. Had no idea who Martin Freeman was and I had moved on from LOTR. But then I watched the whole series (only the Extended Versions for this gal). Yes on the Bilbo/Gollum riddle scenes, amazing! And I was so proud of myself for getting the white horses one right off the bat.

But I was a sucker for the Bilbo/Thorin friendship arc and ALL. THE. LEGOLAS. SCENES. The whitewater rafting and Orlando hanging upside down and dispatching the Orcs spinning around like one of those drum things from Karate Kid Part II. Tauriel was also f*ing badass, moreso than Eowyn from LOTR IMHO. The love story between her and Kili was very touching and compelling for me.

Well, we can agree to disagree ;) Thanks for another great piece Eric!