A short thing about movie/book differences
I know there are a quite a few book purists who can't stand the movie of the book - especially with LotR, I think, or they're just shouting louder than the rest.
Now, I absolutely love the books, there are times when I read them over and over, and only put them aside to read the Silmarillion or the Unfinished Tales, but I don't think you have to hate the movie because of that.
I can enjoy the movies because, well, it's like movie versions of real life history, kind of.
All those differences in the Hobbit movie? Hey, who knows, maybe it's Bilbo "embellishing" a bit ("And then we were attacked by wargs again, and I fought them off single-handedly... well, with a bit of help from Gandalf... and the others...")
And the LotR movies? To me, they're kind of like those war movies that try to make us believe that Tom Cruise single-handedly won WWI on dragonback - you know that's not the way it happened, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it if it's good otherwise.
Well, that's just my opinion, though...
Now, I absolutely love the books, there are times when I read them over and over, and only put them aside to read the Silmarillion or the Unfinished Tales, but I don't think you have to hate the movie because of that.
I can enjoy the movies because, well, it's like movie versions of real life history, kind of.
All those differences in the Hobbit movie? Hey, who knows, maybe it's Bilbo "embellishing" a bit ("And then we were attacked by wargs again, and I fought them off single-handedly... well, with a bit of help from Gandalf... and the others...")
And the LotR movies? To me, they're kind of like those war movies that try to make us believe that Tom Cruise single-handedly won WWI on dragonback - you know that's not the way it happened, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it if it's good otherwise.
Well, that's just my opinion, though...