Too Much Violence

 



   C and I finished reading "The Hobbit" a few weeks ago. Since it was a long book we got an audiobook as opposed to reading it to each other as we had originally planned. I enjoyed the book. C said that the movie was even better. I was looking forward to watching the movie.

   The plan had been to read all the Ring series books before watching the movies. C got a little impatient so we decided to watch the movies before we finished reading all the books. We started with the first movie 'An Unexpected Journey'. It followed the book mostly and was entertaining. The aggravating part was that it ended on a cliffhanger and meant that we'd have to watch another movie to see what happens next. Fortunately for us it meant just renting the next movies as opposed to having to wait for it to come out. 

   The next movie was 'The Desolation of Smaug'. This is where it didn't follow the book well, something that irritates me which is why I don't watch movies based on books much. Another thing that bugged me was the violence. 

   Now I know there are battles in the book, the characters get caught in several different dilemmas. I don't remember that the book had ton of bloodshed. Since Smaug also ended with a cliffhanger we had to watch the next movie, 'The Battle of the Five Armies'. I'm guessing half the movie was battle scenes and individuals in combat. 

   I'm not against battle scenes when it makes sense. The problem with the movies that I've seen so far are that it feels like the amount of violence is gratuitous. Like writers of the screenplay enjoy savagery and wrote as much of it as they could into the screenplay. The other problem with all the brutality in the movies is that it gets in the way of the plot. I thought it was a movies about a creature that has never been away from home going on an epic adventure that changes him. The battles scenes were so long that it became monotonous. The last movies could have cut the amount of battles scenes and fights in half and it would have been just fine. I spent most of the time with my hands over my eyes because I tend to get nightmares The battle scenes were graphic enough that it was highly possible that they would show up in my nightmares.

   We just finished watching the first movie in the Fellowship of the Ring series. An entire scene that was in the book was left out. I'm guessing so there would be more time for battles. 

   I was excited to watch the movies because they were popular and many people like them a lot. Moral of the story. Stick to the books. So far they are better than the movies.

   

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