If you disregard the fact that they're supposed to be based on a book, the movies aren't bad at all. There are some things, mostly in Battle of the Five Armies, that I could do without. But for the most part, they're fine. For Tolkien purists, however, the trilogy is a nightmare.
But really, it's not the easiest book to make a movie adaptation from. After Return of the King, fans were dreaming about "what if PJ made a Hobbit movie?" But the more sombre fans said it wasn't going to happen. Not only is the prose completely different, but there are significant holes in the story, and you've got too many main characters. You've got Bilbo, Gandalf, and... a bunch of dwarves, only two of whom have any memorable characteristics (Thorin and Bombur).
Gandalf disappears for a good spell (no pun intended), for some "pressing business" down south ("which does not come into this tale"). He is written out so that Bilbo can develop on his own, which is good story-writing. But he leaves without the reader ever being offered an explanation, which is bad story-writing. I think PJ made some sensible compromises here.
The prose is also completely different for The Hobbit. PJ's target audience naturally included people who never read Tolkien, and this might arguably be the the larger portion of the audience. With that in mind, it makes sense to make The Hobbit more in tune with the feel of the LotR trilogy.
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