It can be divisive

Are we talking movies or books?
I recently watched the hobbit extended editions and it has good moments, but it doesn't carry the spirit of the LoTR movies.
I never really saw the bonds build up much, and the corruption of Thorin was too sudden, as well as his redemption.
It felt like it was going more for action vibes than that slow pace of pushing against the unfathomable together.
The Hobbit book is excellent, I read it several times as a kid and loved stuff like defeating the trolls.
In the movie gandalf reveals the sun to the trolls which I think takes away the spirit of bilbo's trick.
- Thorin just immediately going “fuck this hobbit dude” was so jarring and cliché. I looked up Azog just now to double check and apparently this fucker died ONE-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY YEARS before the Battle of Five Armies?! But his son was there and they could have used Bolg?! Also they completely removed Bilbo’s role in defeating the trolls and just had Gandalf save them by breaking a rock?
  The Hobbit is the only book I’ve read more than once and yet I won’t even watch the second or third movie and that makes me, honestly, kinda sad. But I still have the book, and that’s a happy thought.
  
  Yeah
  It took watching the extended edition to get an explanation of why the orcs are different. There still are practical effect orcs, but the CGI orcs are not comparable, they don’t feel real the way the OG movies make them feel. The lead Uruk-hai for example felt real, but also huge and badass and threatening. Azog just felt flat and plain to me.
- I could be wrong, I've only read the book this once. But in the book, wasn't it Gandalf who tricked the trolls? Bilbo hears a voice several times that sounds like the trolls, and the trolls mistake the voice for their own multiple times, and afterwards it's revealed that it's Gandalf's voice
  
  You could be right, maybe I have to rerread it some I haven’t in many years

Just get yourslef one of the fanedits and enjoy a much improved film. I recommend the M4 book edit. Sticks to the book as close as possible.
- How can I get this?
  
  I think if you just search for it one of the results should be the website and you can download it from there.
  Should be this one link

The Books are all good. But the movies? From the first LotR to the last Hobbit Movie it was a long way down. From near perfection (Fellowship of the Ring), passing quite cool (Return to the King) and uncomfortable (Hobbit 1) to "Please have mercy with my soul and turn this off" (Hobbit 3)
- Admittedly it’s been awhile for me but Hobbit 1 I remember as being … decent? Still pretty close to the book. Again it’s been awhile for me.

The books are great.
I will never forgive The Hobbit movie for their part in the union busting of the New Zealand version of SAG/AFTRA
- Yeah that is definitely the reason why I dislike the movies too

Fan Edit is the way: https://fanedit.org/fanedit-search/search-results/?query=all&scope=title&keywords=hobbit&order=rdate
I personally like the Ravenomics Version
- I watched this one, https://tolkieneditor.wordpress.com/ and it was quite good.
- This right here. I watched the M4 book edit. Loved it.

I love the basketball court noises in Saruman’s sanctum, like the wizards are going mano-a-mano in their best Air Jordans.

So is LOTR written in the style of The Hobbit? Because I gave up quick on the later.
- It's been a long time but IIRC The Hobbit is written for a younger audience, LOTR is harder to read and has a more serious tone
- The Hobbit does grow more serious as it goes on, the first third is... an experience to read, i agree. LOTR is much more serious, the elves are much more the wise old beings (still jovial at times, but in a less childish way).

There are more people who liked the Hobbit movies than there are people who disliked the LotR movies?