The Hobbit, movie #2

**Don't worry, no spoilers**

Yesterday Mc and I went with our friend Blondie to see the second Hobbit movie.  First of all, let me say that as a movie on its own it was pretty good, and the actor who plays Bilbo is still perfect for that role and I love watching him act!

Now here's why the movie ticked me off:

There is no reason at all why this book should have been made into three movies! This could easily have been two really good movies.  It's been years since I read the book all the way through, but I still knew that with this movie they shortened some scenes and added plot lines and action sequences that were never in the book in order to stretch it out to make three movies.  They spent way too much time doing closeups of people's dramatic facial expressions and not enough time moving the story along.  Watching this movie, you feel like they're stretching it out and stalling for time, and by the end of the movie you realize that what they're stalling for is the third movie.

And they ended this movie in the middle of one of the action scenes!  As the credits started to roll I blurted out, "That's it?!  THAT's where they're ending the movie?!"  I was mad, but I watched my language because there were little kids in the theater (and this is NOT a movie for little kids, by the way-- orcs getting shot in the head with arrows, getting beheaded with swords right in front of the camera, fighting sequences that flash by the screen too fast for your brain to keep up... yeah, not a movie for kids).

I do know that I will not see the third movie.  Mc wants to see it and we've got friends he can go see it with, but I will finish reading the book and let that satisfy me.  It doesn't come through in this post very well because I'm not going into spoiler detail, but I'm that ticked off about this second movie that I will not go see the third one.  They got so much of the book wrong (I'd say it's almost as bad as what Peter Jackson did with "The Two Towers") and even though they're good movies on their own, I'm tired of watching directors do this to books and characters that I like.

Speaking of books-turned-into-movies, I was really excited about this one movie that's supposed to be coming out soon-- it's called "Bridge of Birds".  I read the book for my Science Fiction & Fantasy literature class about ten years ago in college and it's been one of my favorite books ever since.  Last year I looked it up on the Internet Movie Database to see if there was ever a movie made of it, and it says there's one in production!  I was really excited about it and I was determined to go see it if it comes out, but now I'm not so sure I want to do that.  With modern film technology and the right actors for the roles they could do an excellent job of it (and if done right, this will also not be a movie for kids).  But if they're lazy or they're like Peter Jackson and want to "make the movie their own" then they could really screw it up, and I would be so sad and disappointed.  In all honesty I'll probably go see it because I want to see if they'll do the book justice.  I'll just be sure not to read the book beforehand!