Hi there,
Sorry to jump in, but I saw what you were both saying cos I used to be editor for the page, and I was interested in the conversation. My two cents are that the Hobbit is one of my favourite books ever, but I really was bored and upset by the movies. (To be fair, I've only seen the first two so far...but that's because I found them so upsetting that I couldn't watch the third yet!). I admire Peter Jacskson for what he did with LotR trilogy, and I love Martin Freeman as Bilbo. But yeah...so boring.
Also, a fantasy author I really love recently pointed out to me how many female characters are in the original book of the Hobbit...precisely none! Pretty weird eh?
All the best,
Jamie