So now I totally want to watch some LOTR or something overdubbed with Boston accents...

Maybe not as badass, but certainly more lore-accurate than the LOTR films.

The kind of sarcastic, awkward "The Office"-style humour they introduced into the first Hobbit movie was a real turn-off for me, as was the sloppy, rushed-looking CGI (there's a scene at Rivendell where they didn't even bother replacing the scale doubles' faces with the actors' faces) and the odd habit of having the characters fall hundreds of feet onto solid rock without breaking any bones (this happens at least three times in An Unexpected Journey).

The Hobbit is a children's book, and doesn't meet the tone of its sequel very well, even after Tolkien's revised edition. It is a lighter book than the Lord of the Rings, in every sense, and the first film showed that it really can't bear the weight of either the padding PJ has added to the story, nor the efforts to bring a more Rings-style feeling of epic seriousness to what is a small, selfish story about some dwarves looking for gold. The epic/serious tone constantly conflicts with the childish slapstick humour, meaning that neither really work.

It would have been much better as a single 2.5-hour film. I dread to think how much wandering about, awkward humour, diversions from the story, too-weighty extracts from the LOTR appendices and (oh goody) dull Elven love story padding is to come in the next 6 hours of this trilogy.

Nah, they're not THAT bad.

...and to be fair, Lucas had no clue what the prequels would be when he did ep. 4-6, he just made shit up. At least The Hobbit was written BEFORE LoTR.

I'm not sure if you actually disagree or just misunderstand. I have no issue with fantasy, except when it's put in place of reality. I enjoyed LOTR and Hobbit, and I even want to see Pacific Rim (although I must admit I'm embarrassed about it). When fantasy replaces history, history is lost.
When you tell a story that's historical in nature, I (and many others) feel you have an obligation to your audience to teach them the actual history, not to bastardize and fictionalize it with fantasy and Neo. I'm sorry if you feel that way of thinking makes me a jerk, it wasn't what I was going for. I feel it makes me an adult that is unapologetic about being interested in amazing history more than flashy fantasy.
My point about Lincoln has been ignored or misunderstood...would you have liked to see him fight a confederate dragon? Would that have added to, or detracted from the compelling adult story being told? Was Lincoln Vampire Hunter as good a movie as Lincoln in any way? Did the addition of Vampires help you understand the person or time period, or would it have confused you about the historical facts if you knew nothing about the subject(s)?
I understand 300 was not meant to be historical, but it has the same issues with adding fantasy and drama to a well known, historical story. This is a big pet peeve of mine, as I feel most people have a tenuous grasp of history at best, and are not served by being told about historical events in a clearly non-historical, unreal, dramatized, and fantasized manner. It is especially egregious when there is no historical version to point to (in English at least, there is Chushingura in Japanese) when discussing the subject. I read mostly science fiction, and I read both 300 and The Gates of Fire, and while I loved 300, I wish the latter had been made first. I have read many versions of 47 Ronin, and none of them had a dragon or any unrealistic fantasy. Any of them would have made a great action packed adult movie with many lessons to teach rather than just a fun few hours watching Neo save the Asians. To me, adding the fantasy is tantamount to saying the story isn't compelling enough without embellishment, and this one certainly is. To me, it's the same as exaggeration, it's like admitting reality isn't good (or bad) enough to make the point in your argument. Pure fantasy is exempt from this issue.
P.S. sorry for the essay.

@Yogi - Hmm. You thought Season 3 was dragging on and on, but you also want the seasons to be 20 2-hour shows long? I think I would like a very in-depth take on the source that way, but I tend to think that most people would feel like things were dragging too much.

Personally, I liked the books and am enjoying watching a for-TV take on the material. Some things disappoint me compared to the books, but on the whole I feel like it is pretty well done. Sorta like Peter Jackson's LOTR. In both cases, as a fan of the books a longer runtime would almost always be better from my perspective but I can usually understand the cuts made to condense down the material. I'd even include being OK with stuff like Tom Bombadil missing in the LOTR films, which irked a lot of fans; or at least a vocal number on the internet.

The Red Wedding from the books was fairly shocking for me on first reading, but on the other hand I recovered from it fairly quickly since I was personally a bigger fan of Jon Snow as my Stark clan icon from the get-go. As mentioned in the video here, Robb is played up quite a bit in the series, so I guess that for people who haven't read the books it might be an even bigger initial shock than it was to book readers.

/potential slight spoilers

...Not to mention that some other events coming up quite soon replace the "holy shit, that was brutal!" reaction to the Red Wedding with "holy shit, that was brutally awesome!"...

He's the fan of all time. He bested the Tolkien expert Peter Jackson hired for the LOTR trilogy. Jackson said, "I have never met a bigger Tolkien geek in my life."
http://www.accesshollywood.com/peter-jackson-stephen-colbert-is-the-biggest-tolkien-geek-ive-ever-met_article_71855

LOTR soap opera with lots of sex.

...I mean that in a good way.

Your video, What Gollum Thinks of The LOTR movies, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Your video, Elijah Wood's final day on the LOTR set, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

There's no "Mount Dune" in lotr, but there is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Doom

AND...
Watch all the classic geek movies and TV.

Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Never Ending Story(s), Princes Bride, LOTR, Planet of the Apes, So much more - too much to list, but you get the idea

But don't ignore the new stuff!!!
Eventualy they will be telling you what is cool so be ready to get interested in the stuff they bring to you.

Got me by 42 minutes... LOL... Australia used to be very high on my list of places to live when I was a kid (loved Koalas and Kangaroos)... until Crocodile Hunter taught me that every single deadly creature in the world (insects, snakes, spiders...) seem to live there... still not high on the list due to censorship issues regarding games and movies... in the end it became more and more New Zealand as the place to go if I was to move down south... and then the LotR movies came out and that solidified NZ... still the impossibility of moving out of the US makes that an impossible dream...

>> ^arekin:

Is that Yoda at the cave trolls birthday party?

Yes:
>> ^YouTubeDescription:

There are also two easter eggs for the highly observant out there! Who can spot Gollum, slinking in the shadows, and who can spot the Star Wars cameo?