Would you rather have liked Del Toro to direct The Hobbit films?

In retrospect, perhaps yes. He might have brought some fresh ideas into it, rather than Jackson, who seemed to be rather worn out with Tolkien's universe.

Alfonso Cuarón might have been been a good choice too.

Absolutely. For one I don't think he would have spilt them between 3 films. For another the series really needed a fresh take to stop it just coming off as a watered down version of LotR. Also PJ kind of lost the plot sometime during the post-production of RotK when he started throwing stupid *beep* at the screen to see what stuck (something he carried over to his next two movies). Basically he was a spent creative force by half way through the making of LotR, the last film barely surviving because the story itself and the ground work already done made it really hard to stuff up.

Hmm...not sure about that, I never got the impression that Del Torro knew or cared much about the source material and some of the rumours and leaked artwork suggest he would have gone in a radically different direction from LOTR, whilst I've always looked at The Hobbit novel as more of a stand alone children's fairytale rather than a LOTR prequel, and was interested to see a new director's interpretation of the story I had a feeling that he may have used the story as a springboard for his own ideas rather than trying to stay within the spirit of the book (though Del Torro had some interesting ideas-he wanted to use more animatronics and practical effects, was going to mark the passing of the seasons more directly, more talking animals and he wanted to cast an older actor as Thorin as per the book).

Peter Jackson's versions are deeply flawed, badly paced, tonally messy and sideline Bilbo in his storyline, I never got the impression Jackson particularly liked the novel...but having him direct from the start might have been a good thing as he already had experience from the LOTR films, but was given only five months to prep for The Hobbit trilogy.

I didn't mind Jackson directing them but Del Toro's take would've been interesting.

Metallica and Iron Maiden fan who is also a Brony.

I only like Del Toro's earlier work up to The Devil's Backbone. I never cared that much for his adaptations for Hellboy and Blade, and Pan's Labyrinth to me was nothing more than maudlin revisionism of the Spanish Civil War.

I wish they kept the Hobbit down to one movie, but I think the studios and Peter Jackson decided on the more monetary route instead of aiming for a spirited adaptation. I also think the final films left us without much of a Bilbo to identify with. Freemen seemed rather rigid in his portrayal and not the way I remember Bilbo from the books, nor did he feel like a younger version of Ian Holm's version.

I guess I would have picked PJ to do a proper adaptation but with 100% of his input from the get go. I don't get why he opted for Del Toro to take the helm as his approach to storytelling involves most of what he saw play out with the extended monsters/chases and muddled battles.

Jackson or Del Toro, I just would have wanted full commitment and preparation on the level of the LOTR films.



Look- it's trying to think!

That's part of the issue imo.
But a major problem with the Hobbit movies was the interference of the studio which involved zero preparation.
The studio at the last minute insisted on a 3rd Hobbit movie.
That's outrageous and it badly hurt the quality of the total story of all the Hobbit movies taken as a whole.

Under those terrible conditions no director could make that work well.

Imo at least, BB ;-)

it is just in my opinion - imo - 🌈