10 Changes That Would Have Saved The Hobbit

Almost all the issues laid out in this article could have been addressed with just one simple decision: Jackson should have stuck to his original two-part movie narrative.

Films typically follow a three-act structure. In comparison, The Hobbit book doesn't. It's an episodic adventure story which see Bilbo and the dwarves overcome a number of obstacles before eventually completing their ultimate goal.

But there would be ways of adapting this to the screen effectively. Dividing the story in two and have a three-act structure in both would have been doable. The obvious mid-point is when Bilbo finally proves himself to the Dwarves by breaking them out of Mirkwood. This would have given the first film a beginning, middle and end: Bilbo leaves his comfortable home; struggles to find his feet in the wider world; and finally proves his worth by rescuing the dwarves.

Months before the first movie was set for release, the decision was made to make a trilogy. Not only did this require a huge amount of extra action sequences to flesh out the films, but it also meant the narrative had to be restructured. Going from two movies with a three part structure, to three movies with three part structure, resulted in scenes feeling out of place. The Death of Smaug for example should have been mid point climax to the second movie, not the opening to the third...