just watched them all this weekend (theatrical hobbit, extended edition LOTR)...a few comments:

- LOTR really is much, much better. a compelling argument could be made that TTT is #3 over BOFA, but i gave the nod to BOFA to provide some balance to the trilogies and because i thought it was very well done

- the titles to the Hobbit movie really make me mad. the "desolation" of smaug was so named and EVERYTHING in the movie points to his death and then it ends right before he dies. super lame IMO. there's a short one-liner about the city of dale being smaug's "desolation" but we learned about that in the first movie (AUJ)...horrible way to end the 2nd movie...but it made the 3rd movie exciting i guess. PJ became too obsessed with having his "james bond like" 3-5 minute intros.

- BOFA should have been "there and back again"...it's so stupid they changed it at the end. the battle isn't longer or "grander" than the battle of pellenor fields in ROTK...even the book bilbo is writing in calls the book "there and back again". i heard phillipa boyens comment they changed the name because they are already "there" so they can't name it "there and back again"...poppycock. they just got "there" and need to finish up a lot of stuff "there" in the movie...and i wish they would have focused a bit more on "back again" and tie ins to FOTR.

- the use of "big-atures" seems to be replaced by pure CGI in the hobbit which is what many feel turned them into a video game like experience.

- i don't mind the addition of tauriel and azorg but when 2 of your top-5 characters are made up, it's probably a sign you're stretching things

- i actually fell asleep in AUJ...that first scene is like 45 minutes long and that whole movie is a snoozer, except the riddles in the dark part...very tough to get through.