 Sound of the final Hobbit film, The Battle of the Five Armies, and I'm happy to say it's the best of the three. I enjoyed Desolation of Smog for what it was, which is just a cheap ride. There is no real substance to be found. I thought the last 30 minutes drug on with no real conclusion in sight. This new one starts up, the dragon's eliminated almost instantly. I knew it would be done within 10 minutes. I was worried what was going to follow. Fortunately it was a very good script. It was very fun, there was a ton of action, and now Legolas is a full on video game character. He clamors on the bat creatures, he rides on a troll's head, hell he even runs up cobblestone as it's breaking into pieces, defying physics itself. Just cut the shit, Jackson, give us a standalone Legolas movie, just say fuck it, we'll make it another trilogy, just Legolas killing people. We'll call it Assassin's Creed. Outside of Legolas there is a lot to like too, but he is my favorite part of these films, which is amazing because he has zero personality in the Hobbit trilogy. Unlike the Lord of the Rings, there's no charisma, there's no wittiness, he's just a stone cold badass. Martin Freeman once more playing Bilbo is spot on, then you have the great Ian McKellen playing Gandalf, Thorin gets a little bit more range as he gets engulfed with the dragon sickness, Kate Blanchett, Christopher Lee and Hugo Weaving just make it feel like a complete series tying into the Lord of the Rings. The biggest criticism is that this should have been two movies at the most, I mean it's been said to death, but it needs to be repeated because Act 2 really is just a bridge film that didn't need a bridge at all. The bridge was there at part one, just jump right to two if you need to extend this thing out past one three hour movie. I am happy to say that unlike the Star Wars prequels, I will gladly watch these with my kids someday in the Order Jackson and Tolkien wanted, I will start with the Hobbit and go to Lord of the Rings and that's for multiple reasons. One, this isn't near as threatening of a film, it's shot mostly in the daylight, I don't even know if there is any dark scenes in the third act. Two, the CGI is fine but it's well overdone and it's a doubled what Lord of the Rings has easily. Lord of the Rings holds up much better because it uses a lot of practical effects, costumes, makeup, on top of CGI. There are a couple really sketchy parts though where it felt like Peter Jackson was like fuck it, we're almost done, let's just phone this in, like when they ride those mountain goats or yaks or whatever the hell they are up the side of the mountain, it felt like the CGI was completely unfinished and I was playing a game on the Nintendo Wii U. There are some really cool one on one battles and that final one with Thorin and that albino fucker that keeps following him is a sight to see. There's some really good drama, some of it's very forced, like the love story that nobody asked for with the female Legolas, but I had a great time here and I can easily rewatch this Hobbit series, is it anywhere near Lord of the Rings? I don't think so, I am going to feud Lord of the Rings versus the Hobbit, both trilogies on movie feuds and I'm doing the Hobbit trilogy versus the Star Wars prequel trilogy, so stick around for those, they're going to happen in a couple weeks. I'm going to give the Hobbit the battle of the five armies and nine out of ten. I really enjoyed it, regardless of some sketchy CGI from time to time, the pacing is very good, it's fast for once, especially for a Jackson film, it's also the shortest of the entire suite of films he's done. Let's hear from you now, post a comment, let me know where this stacks up in the Jackson universe for you, is this your favorite, least favorite, somewhere in the middle? Let me know, subscribe to Feud Nation for all the latest rants, car side reviews, and movie feuds of course. That's probably the last big car side review for the year, what's on the horizon? Jupiter ascending? That's going to be a mess, I'm calling it right now. I hope I'm wrong, but Chelsea's could use a hit.