I'm sorry, I'd argue with many that want to claim Tolkein nerd-dom, but I've read the LOTR's all the way through over 30 times, have read everything the man wrote, plus the material Christopher published and wrote about as well. But the Hobbit was a kids book, and that's what he intended it to be. As a movie, it would have been pretty boring in one movie. I actually liked what Jackson did with the book.

I think there were a number of other stories that would have made better 3-hour movies though in LOTR lore and appendices. We'll see how this crew at Amazon does with their "adaptation of the 2nd age", but Jackson with all his "misses", still brought Middle Earth to the big screen in a big way that no one else has come close to mastering. The only other attempt was that horrible comic fiasco of a movie that the Tolkein family approved as well.