Those were my thoughts exactly when I saw the movie. I didn’t mind Jackson making stuff up that might have been going on outside the scope of the book but the direct change to the story line put me off.
Okay, warn me ahead of time. I had wanted to see it in the theatre but my son had to leave for a time and still have not seen it. Used to read the books once a year, every fall started the journey with Bilbo. I am gathering that the dragon doesn’t die at Dale?