- N8 Thegr8t
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- Senior Heroic Member
Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit as a children's book. It was not intentionally designed as a direct prequel to LotR, in fact, when he wrote it, he didn't write in the power of the Ring because he had no idea what he was going to do with it yet. It was short, with easy to understand: conflict, characters, and moral dilemmas with very little tension.
Peter Jackson could have just rehashed The Hobbit as a movie that did just that, but instead he decided to add material from history and lore found written in other material by Tolkien such as the Untold Stories, Silmarilian, and the Appendices to make his rendition of The Hobbit much broader in scope. The movie isn't overly long, it's the introduction, and as with introductions it can seem slightly tedious at times. He laid the foundation for future conflict and branching stories which he merely hinted at in this story, granted, most people won't notice these slight jabs, but they're there for those who wish to find them.
Watch this 70 minute review of The Phantom Menace (it comes in 7 parts) and that should help explain why The Hobbit is nothing at all like The Phantom Menance.