It was the last point. The rest that come cannot even be considered
Middle-earth. Just some ill-intentioned analogy.
That film-makers are faced with an almost impossible task in converting
books to film does not surprise me - at least when the filming of a book series does not overlap with the writing of the books. This overlap was the case with J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, and with G.R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, which got the title of Martin's first book of that series when brought to the (small) screen as "Game of Thrones" by HBO.
The hard fact is that books and films each have their own strengths and weaknesses. No book can match the visuals of a film shot (though a still picture that does not haste on to the next gaga thrill as the filmmakers seem to think necessary might be better); no film (especially viewed in a cinema - having a DVD that you can rewind is a slightly different matter) can catch the nuances of language, or pretty much anything that needs a slow build-up, that a book can. I've gotten sick of Peter Jackson and others trying to explain the "needs of the film medium". which turn out to be perhaps needs of the director, here Jackson, or needs assumed by a much more pathetic sector of humanity, film producers.
I'll drag up my favorite epithet for this bunch, the "cookie cutter". Gotta have this, gotta have that - and "the audience wants this!" Problem is, from what I've read about this bunch (in books by / about people who have suffered from their incomprehension) is that if there is one thing they lack, it is the slightest respect for their audience, their customers. Maybe because they're always trying to go for that lowest 5% (or whatever the percentage may be) of
trolls. This might be analogous to what I dimly remember of my time in a US high school 1970-73. There were at least the courses that were considered honors courses, only by taking which you could get the maximum score for your grade-point-average, 5.0. Perfect score in a
non-honors course only got you a 4.5 (as did less than perfect scores in an honors course). What may have existed
two steps down from that honors course (if it existed) I do not know.
I'll now jump to my US college time. Had a buddy there who might have been a genius at physics. He was taking graduate courses when a sophomore (second of four years of undergraduate study). He had one problem. Our college had a foreign language requirement. That was his extreme weak point, but he just managed to pass.
So let's return to a film theater.
in JRRT's legendarium (and the average film theater), there are
Elves,
Númenóreans,
Dwarves,
Rohirrim,
Hobbits,
Orcs and Trolls.
The problem?
The producers are aiming to get that lowest whatsit (
the Trolls) into the cinemas. They're insulting maybe 95% of the remaining audience. But to have a certified blockbuster, sacrifices must be made ... 🤬🤬🤬
