Don your armor boys and girls because there's elf and dwarf blood to be spilt in the aftermath of Smaug's death!

From what I understand, at the time that the Hobbit was written, J.R.R. Tolkien didn't really have an idea that it would be more of a story than it was. He'd only started to expand on possibilities racing through his head, i.e., the war of the ring, and so on and so forth. So is it really all that bad that Peter Jackson (in adapting the Hobbit) has made so many changes for the sake of continuity in what may be the finest example of a six volume film edition of the best that fantasy has to offer?

I know many people who are fans of the books, and some of them insist that the Hobbit is supposed to be a personal story about Bilbo. I say boo hoo. So Peter Jackson pretty much shoved that concept off the planning table and decided to approach it on a grand scale; I think if you're one of his critics that you should be thanking him for it.

He's given increased speaking parts to the dragon (who here would not leap at the chance at having Benjamin Cumberbatch do your voice mail?), explained the story much better by borrowing from the Silmarillion, and inserted female characters (and Legolas) where there was none before. And there are the complaints that center around the question: where are all the songs? Honestly, when I read the Hobbit I skipped the songs and continued with the text underneath them. In my defense, I read the book when I was a kid and I really had no mind for poetry at the time (although now I quite enjoy it).

In short, I like the drama, the seriousness of it, and how (tonally) the movie is a far cry from being a children's story. Anyway, this is the end of my "mini-rant." I'm very excited for the Battle of the Five Armies, and the first trailer hit the interwebs this week. If you haven't seen it, click on the trailer below.

Don your armor boys and girls because there's elf and dwarf blood to be spilt in the aftermath of Smaug's death! And the huge rock trolls with trebuchets on their backs is really f'ing cool, if I say so myself.

What say you? Are ye a fan of the Hobbit films or do you think Peter Jackson has done a terrible job at adapting Tolkien's books?