So bad that it's almost good. That's about all I can say about this one. When you understand that it was hurriedly thrown together to ensure future access to film rights, that it was never theatrically released (only screened one time), and that it was only published in 2012, it actually becomes an amusing little gem(?) in the history of Tolkien's epic saga of Middle-Earth. To be totally honest, it doesn't deviate as much from the story as did Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy (and only slightly more than his The Lord of the Rings). It's well worth the quarter of an hour it takes to view ...