quarantine 'em

After much deliberation, my favourite part of The Hobbit is where the dragon is killed offscreen by a previously unmentioned character

This narrowly edges out the FOUR separate occasions where the day is saved by a deus ex machina (twice Gandalf, twice magical eagles)

Also the long-telegraphed Battle Of Five Armies between Bard and the dwarves, in which... they join forces against random irate goblins

Quick piece of advice. If the setup of your story is "We'll go from A to B and do X", don't spend 85% of the story getting to B. SHOW US X

[whiny Milhouse voice] "When are they gonna get to the fireworks factory?!" Here the fireworks factory is Smaug's lair, obviously

The Lord Of The Rings trilogy is the same as The Hobbit but worse, five times longer with a bunch of its own problems