> a lot of The Hobbit's issues were in the writing rather than direction, sure, a better director may have made it "less bad" but overall given the same script

> a lot of The Hobbit's issues were in the writing rather than direction, sure, a better director may have made it "less bad" but overall given the same script you'll get a similarly flawed set of films. I don't disagree with this, but I think if GdT had directed, he would also have had a lot of influence over the script and general direction the movie went in. He's not just a hired gun. Sadly, we'll never know for sure... TT