We haven't done one of these in a while, as the Oscar season has continued to take hold and staggered releases have made it a little difficult to suss out just how available some of these films might be to a wider audience. But obviously “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” has been blasted out globally, and I imagine there are some opinions on it locked and loaded.

My take? I sort of loved it. It might even be might favorite of the entire “Lord of the Rings” saga (save, perhaps, the extended “Fellowship of the Ring”). I actually felt something, which was a shift for the “Hobbit” series for me, and the action and spectacle was absorbing and fantastic. Martin Freeman also crushed it, proving that his might well be the finest performance of all six films. But I was never a big “Ringnut” and always found the original trilogy severely overvalued, so take from these thoughts what you will. After being more or less OK with “An Unfinished Journey” and finding “The Desolation of Smaug” pretty much impossible to engage with, this was refreshing. But it's also packed with all the stuff we've been waiting to see depicted. There's probably a great four-and-a-half hour version of this trilogy to be pieced together.

Anyway, enough about me. What about you? Did you make it out to see the close of Jackson's Middle Earth sextet? (Though I guess he's been suggesting/threatening more.) If and when you do catch it, head on back here with your thoughts and vote in our poll.