Quote Originally Posted by Seppl View Post
Was it? In the story that is literally about a little Hobbit becoming the big hero, despite everyone saying he cannot? Making Bilbo a woman, now that would have been a change that fits the story and keeps the real original message intact!
You hit on my pet peeve about the movies with your first sentence there; yes, Legolas showing up and upstaging everyone is annoying; Tauriel being the token female only used for stereotypical female plot lines is cringeworthy. But the major gripe I have is that in a story called "The Hobbit", which should be about said Hobbit becoming a big hero, they change everything to the point where Bilbo becomes irrelevant to the story.
It's especially galling in the second movie; every scene that is solved through wits in the book is quickly brushed over and turned into an action scene instead:
In the book, Gandalf knows that Beorn doesn't like dwarves. So he tricks Beorn by piquing his curiosity and having the dwarves show up two at a time. In the movie we have the group being chased around by Beorn in his bear form.
In the book, Bilbo saves the dwarves in Mirkwood by leading the spiders away and sneaking back to cut them free, then luring the spiders again to give the dwarves time to flee; he's actually the big hero in that scene since the dwarves are in no shape to fight. In the movie, the elves show up and rescue them after a short fight scene.
In the book, Bilbo helps the dwarves escape from the elves by nailing them into the barrels. The elves then drop them into the river themselves, not realizing the dwarves had been in there until long after they are gone. In the movie, they are found pretty much immediately, get chased by Legolas, and wouldn't even have escaped if the orcs hadn't shown up as a convenient distraction.
Especially bad once they reach the Lonely Mountain. In the book, Bilbo matches wits with Smaug and successfully tricks him. In the movie, they talk about five minutes, then Bilbo takes off the freaking ring. Cue the dwarves showing up and everything turning into a chase/action scene again that could have happened the exact same way if Bilbo hadn't been there at all. And then, Smaug has the dwarves right in front of him in plain sight (and flame range) and instead, he just leaves to destroy Laketown. It makes no sense at all, because they changed everything that lead up to this in the book.
Overall, a lot of the book is about how thinking can get you much further than just being large and/or strong. Not a bad message for a childrens' book, I might add. And Bilbo is the representation of that way of problem-solving. Since the movies skip all of the "boring" thinking and solve everything by fighting, Bilbo becomes superfluous.

Ahem, sorry, got carried away into a bit of a rant there.
To circle back to the actual topic of the thread, don't change fundamental parts of the story just because you think it's what the audience wants to see. If you don't like the source material, find one that fits what you want better.