I've managed to miss out on whatever negativity might have been heaped on The Hobbit films so I honestly don't know if it's been subjected to the same kind of internet-based bashing that the prequels had. As with the prequels, though, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that someone, somewhere, watched the films, made a negative remark, and it's been repeated ad nauseum ever since by a growing number of "haters" - ergo, the first person to use the phrase "mannequin skywalker" was a genius, the second person to say it was an idiot.

Has the criticism been about the amount of CGI in the films? Quelle surprise, if it has. Or is it about the additional scenes? I don't remember Saruman being in the book but then again I only read it once and it was a long, long time ago.