Just sayin': The Hobbit

I love a good story, whether it is someone telling it, reading it or watching a movie. I absorbed Harry Potter as soon as each book came out (I picked up on the buzz just as book 3 was published) and saw each movie within hours of the release. I had never read Lord of the Rings as a kid, but when the first movie was about to premier I read the books, then devoured the movies. Ditto for The Hunger Games (I loved the new second movie that just came out). And The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (I even watched the Swedish versions of the movies). But it's a good story that I love.

So about 5 months ago I bought the Blu-Ray 3D video of the first of The Hobbit movies ( I never read the books). Then a friend told me it was a bad buy - long, boring, painful. I never watched it - until yesterday.

So I was wrapping Christmas presents yesterday, I put on my 3D glasses and flipped on the first disc. My friend was right. Just like The Man of Steel movie I saw in theaters last year, The Lord of the Rings (the first one) was NOT about the story. Out of the three hour movie nearly 2-and-a-half hours (do I exaggerate?) had to be either the main party fighting, or the main party running. It got so repetitive and boring that if I hadn't been occupied with working on Christmas gifts, I would have turned it off.

I'm not sure why producers and directors have to do that - pack in all that action with the main characters fighting the same fight a dozen times against only slightly different enemies in slightly different venues (see The Man of Steel). It distracts from the real purpose of any book or movie - to tell a story. But maybe, just maybe, there are enough people who like all those battles to support the movies.

And so I won't go see the second movie, about to hit theaters, unless the reviews are a whole lot better. Nor will I buy the Blu-Ray version.

Just sayin'.