See, I disagree. The thing
I *liked* was the homeliness. The whole point of the Hobbit is someone very homely and safe being thrust into this fantasy world, and if you remove that homeliness at the beginning, it just becomes a rather generic fantasy adventure. The leaping about killing wargs and orcs I accepted as a necessary evil to give Bilbo a character arc over this section of the plot.

Also, how awesome was the riddle scene?