The Hobbit movies being shit is due to greed and imcompetence by Warner Bros. They knew they had only a small time window to do these movies until the rights reverted and they fired Del Toro who was already deep in preproduction because they thought he was too slow. Which forced Peter Jackson, who rather did it himself instead of Warner ruining it completely, to start by scratch and do the movies under horrible circumstances. Scenes were shot without knowing where they fit in because the script was written during shooting, CG had to be shoddily used because Weta couldn't get practical effects and make-up to work quickly enough. Ian McKellen broke down crying because he had to do whole dialogue scenes in a green screen room alone. The making of also shows Peter Jackson being absolutely exhausted and disillusioned. It seems to have broken something in Jackson too, since he hasn't done any movies except documentaries since.

Yes I was talking about the movies. :)

Loved the Hobbit and LotR books. Had them all when I was a kid and would always reread them.