Let's Make Sense of the 'Hobbit' Movie Name Change

WARNING: Mild spoilers ahead.

Now here's a title worthy of following something as visceral-sounding as "The Desolation of Smaug."

Peter Jackson announced today that, with only eight months from release, the third and final chapter of his "The Hobbit" trilogy will be renamed, from "The Hobbit: There and Back Again" to "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies." (Cue the war drums.)

[Related: Smaug Is Just as Scary in Lego Form!]

Jackson himself explained the title change for the third chapter of "The Hobbit" on his Facebook page, saying "There and Back Again" felt like "the right name for the second of a two-film telling of the quest to reclaim Erebor, when Bilbo's arrival there, and departure, were both contained within the second film," referring to the time when "The Hobbit" was going to be simply a two-parter before it followed the path of "The Lord of the Rings" and officially became a trilogy in July 2012.

"But with three movies, it suddenly felt misplaced — after all, Bilbo has already arrived 'there' in the 'Desolation of Smaug,'" adds Jackson.

And "The Battle of the Five Armies" is certainly more rousing than "There and Back Again," a go-get-'em moniker that promises to end Jackson's final visit to Middle-earth with a bang and a boom rather than a sigh of whimsy, all in glorious 48 frames per second (if that's your thing).

Most reactions to the title change have been positive:

And some have been, well, downright funny:

The "Five Armies" refers to the forces that do battle after Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) slays the dragon Smaug, with he prize being all that treasure left behind in Lonely Mountain (that rightfully belongs to the dwarves). The fighting factions are:

1. The orcs, goblins, wargs, and bats (the bad guys), fight against the combined forces of...
2. The dwarves, who team up with...
3. The men of Lake-town and...
4. The elves and...
5. The eagles.

Our friends Bilbo, Gandalf, and the skin-changing Beorn are also in the mix, siding with the good guys.

Meanwhile, the title "There and Back Again" will still be very much a part of the cinematic world of "The Hobbit" — it's the name of the epic tome by old Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) back in Hobbiton that prompts this whole three-part flashback. Remember?

It's a title that you may see on your own media shelf some day soon. "As Professor Tolkien intended, 'There and Back Again' encompasses Bilbo's entire adventure, so don't be surprised if you see it used on a future box set of all three movies," teases Jackson.

Until then, Jackson is "happily editing away in a dark cave in Wellington" in preparation for "The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies," which hits theaters on Dec. 17.

[Related: POPSessions: Why a 'Big Bang' Character Is on Luke Evans's Enemies List]