8. Less Goofy Humour
One of the most irksome aspects of The Hobbit was its goofy humour, and most of this occurs during the opening third of the film, as the dwarves enter Bilbo's life and try to convince him to come on their journey with Gandalf. The dwarves have pratfalls, and are basically presented as thoroughly daft throughout, notably as they arrive at Rivendell and show displeasure at the Elven menu, which largely consists of vegetables rather than, as one character protests, chips. Though the story is light adventure fare, it's really light enough as it stands; do we really need this additional goofiness? It's just cringe-inducing, and the source material is strong enough to hold up without it. The Desolation of Smaug would do well to cut down on this, and given the broader argument that Jackson could do with cutting his script's fat down a bit, it would be easy to shave a few minutes off just by excising some of the execrable attempts at humour.