Alright so I saw it twice no, both times on pot brownies (the second time I was offered free brownies, what am I gunna do say no?
). Being a reader of the books, here's what I think:
- The beginning scene with Smeagol and Deagol, and transformation of Smeagol into Gollum was AWESOME. When I first saw it I wasn't sure what I was seeing, I thought it was back in the shire or something. I think we gained a much much better understanding of the true power of the ring, as well as Gollum's persona.
- The scene with the Palantir was cool, but I wanted to see it done the same way in the book. If memory serves me correctly, in the book that ball was knocked out of Saruman's staff when he came to the porch to talk to Gandalf. Gandalf does some sort of magic and cracks his staff and basically let's Saruman know that Gandalf is now badass and won't take anymore shit. This is where the ball comes from I think. I would have liked to see a little bit of that in the movie.
- Thought the charge of the Rohirrim was awesome. I'm kinda a history buff so when I saw that scene I was saying to myself "so...this is what a devastating horsecharge must have been like back in medieval times." Really an awesome scene.
- Every single scene with Arwen in it made me want to cringe. The second time around I literally closed my eyes and just chilled for a little while whenever it was a scene with her. That scene about half an hour into the movie...where she's on the horse...so bad, just sooo soo bad...
- Gondor I thought was done awesome. Everything about it. The battle, the city, Denethor.
- I didn't particularly like the ghosts. I mean yeah they were cool, but the whole neon-green just threw me off. I pictured them as shadows kinda, maybe they shoulda been black. I dunno, its a little nitpicky thing of mine. They could have done the ghosts better I thought. They could have had feet too rather than floated. I just felt they were underdone as far as special effects go.
- Gollum was funnier and more awesome than ever. Frodo and Sam's part of the saga was done really well. I thought it was really weak in the Two Towers becuase they left out Shelob. I stand by what I've always said, that they should have had shelob in the Two Towers movie and have it end with Frodo apparently dead (Peter Jackson could lead the audience to believe this) and Sam as the only one left to destroy the ring. It coulda ended so cliffhanger-like! Anyways, rambling, back on topic.
Overall, thought it was an awesome movie, although the ending was a bit weak I thought. I liked alot of things about this movie, and some dislikes, but hey, can't have it every way you want it, and this was by far an amazing experience to see the whole trilogy to be put on screen like it was. I mean I was impressed with like 80% of how they portrayed everything, and me being a nitpicky bookreader, I mean shit that's gotta be saying something, right? I thought it was very well done.
---------Things I would have liked to see that were in the book and not in the movie--------
- Ghan Buri Ghan, woulda been really cool to see a little bit with him. I coulda swore I went on
www.imdb.com and saw his character in the credits, so going into the movie I assumed I would see him. Maybe he's in the extended DVD?
- I originally posted that I thought that the scouring of the Shire is not much to be upset about. but that was ASSUMING that they would have wrapped up the ending nicer than they did. I didn't really like the movie ending, it was way too long for them to NOT have put Saruman in. Its almost like they decided to leave out the part with Saruman and just fill it in with blanks rather than to re-do the ending a little bit better. I mean, that's how I felt about it.
- THE CONFRONTATION BETWEEN GANDALF AND THE WITCH KING! Where the fuck was this scene? It coulda been sooooo badass! I mean in the movie there's a part where an orc says "what about the white wizard?" and the witch king goes "I will break him." And I was like "OOOOH SHIT HELL YEAH HERE IT COMES!" I anticipated becuase in the book there's a little confrontation between the two of them when Gondor gets attacked, and even though it was a small part, it coulda been done so awesomely I was really let down. I mean why would the witch king say he would break gandalf and then they never ever meet? This made it seem like there was something missing even more.
- It seems like there is going to be an extended scene explaining the White Tree better in the DVD or something. It didn't seem to fit right in the movie.
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Anyways, these are just nitpicky things that I don't think detract too much from the overall movie. I thought it was awesome and can't wait for the extended version. And having felt good and lucky about seeing all three in the theatres, I think I'll be watching these movies for a long time after.
i thought he was gonna be all martyr-like, instead he was more like showboating and disgracing them. 
![:\](https://bluelight.org/xf/BL_Images/Orig_Emoji/wrygrin.gif "wry grin :\")
