generalfrevious said:

But to stay on topic, didn't Peter Jackson do to the Hobbit what Orci and Kurtzman did to Star Trek, turning thought provoking works into mindless action schlock? Is anyone afraid that Jackson could spend the rest of his life butchering the rest of Tolkien's work in the same vein?

Well, The Hobbit was never really a though-provoking work, just a kid's fairy tale.

generalfrevious said:

You know, maybe Jackson should have made the Hobbit first in the late 90s. It could have been a more restrained film than what we got, and if the Tolkien estate didn't like it they could have handed the reins for LOTR to a more reliable director. At least Zack Snyder or Justin Lin wasn't behind the wheel for this project.

At the very least he tried to, even if it never happened.