Well, I named my daughter after a character in Game of Thrones, so it's probably not a genre problem. That said, I would say that fantasy is graded more easily than sci fi, and sci fi gets softballed.

My problem with The Hobbit is it was a lot of singing and dancing and funny languages and twee little things that had nothing to do with plot or characterization. That's my beef with Tolkien - he was all about "here are things that are cool with the scarcest of plots to tie them together." Dragon Slayer had more plot than the Hobbit and it was like 75 minutes long.

This is why Wizard of Earthsea is so awesome for Fantasy - problems are grappled with. Issues are posed. Characters arc. People grow up. It's what I love about the Game of Thrones books - they're filled with real people facing real problems in real ways.

It's the classic Star Trek vs. Star Wars problem: Star Trek was Wagon Train, tromping through space and solving a new problem every week. Star Wars was a samurai film with hyperspace. I think it's because people writing fantasy don't really feel obligated to do anything with it. It's a damn shame. When you've got all of magic to work with, you'd think you'd be able to come up with something compelling.