5. Loyalty to Tolkein
The Lord of the Rings was a sequel to The Hobbit, intrinsically designed to reflect the original story. In fact so many parallels can be drawn. A lost king, returning to his home to reclaim his crown, the quest to find something in a mountain, the inclusion of giant spiders and Gollum and our characters visiting home settlements of Elves, Men and Dwarves at different points. The film follows in this way with the first film staying structurally similar to 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. Our heroes are chased to Rivendell by the enemy before taking a trip underground to a foul city where they are terrorized by orcs/ goblins. Ultimately they are caught up with in the woods and our Hobbit hero has to make a difficult decision. Whether to fight off the Orc chief/ whether to leave the Fellowship behind. Also the inclusion of the material from the Appendices would have pleased Tolkien as he always seemed to have more interest in than his stories themselves.