[Jim from C-Town]

The entire Hobbit movie should have been one three hour film that followed the book. The first one was so bad and so full of nonsense that I fell asleep and I have read that book at least ten times.

It is a children's book or at least a young adults book. A true following of the book without all the added nonsense including a stupid chase when the dwarfs escaped the wood elves including the kind of gymnastics and that would make Olga Korbut blush was more embarrassing than artful.

[katana]

Supposedly Tolkien consciously wrote The Hobbit to be read aloud to children, English children of the 1930's of course who would have the vocabulary to comprehend it and patience to listen to it. Jackson incorporated elements from later Tolkien writings including the LOTR and the Silmarilion, making the story much longer and darker. But the basic elements, Bilbo's adventure "there and back again" with the dispossessed band of dwarves led by obsessed Thorin, the goblins, finding the ring, riddles in the dark, woodland elves aren't very nice, Lake Town, the dragon, and the battle of the five armies were all in The Hobbit. Jackson fleshed out a small book into three extremely long films. What bothered me about them was the obvious use of CGI from the LOTR. Can't blame him, really. The stuff was expensive to make originally and was otherwise just sitting on a shelf. But it was a distraction.