[Lostgaeriel]

All I can say is WOW! OK, I can say a lot more. I LOVED it. I had high but realistic expectations...I didn't expect it to be like the book. Because...<P>It is a movie - a MOTION PICTURE. The story has to be told in moving images, not in pages of narrative. The "historical" or "background" information must be SHOWN. For example, Saruman's treachery had to be shown - thus the amount of screen time. Although my two movie-going friends found the cuts to and from Orthanc disjointed, I didn’t.<P>And my friends were concerned about a lack of character development. But first the characters must be established for those unfamiliar with the story. And there are a lot of characters. So the focus was on the more important characters of the trilogy: Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn and Saruman. (Boromir's character also had to be dealt with of course. I liked how the relationship between Aragorn and Boromir was developed - it revealed as much about Aragorn's character as Boromir's.) The other characters will be developed in the next movies as the action follows them. I concede that by giving Arwen’s character more substance and power, the movie diluted Frodo’s strength of character somewhat. But I am hopeful that Frodo’s sterner stuff will show up in the next instalment. <P>The battle/fight scenes were truly terrifying. The costumes and set designs were breathtaking. The special effects were amazing. (I don't know enough about Balrogs to know if it was well done or not. But it scared me.)<P>I'm kind of embarrassed, but I cried through most of the film. First the Hobbiton scenes choked me up - I felt that I was there. Bree was exactly how I pictured it. Rivendell and Lothlorien were more beautiful than I had imagined. And knowing the storyline didn't stop me from bawling when Frodo was wounded, when Gandalf fell, when Boromir died. And the slight changes made it more surprising and exciting. (And stopped me from lip-synching the dialogue!) The 3 hours flew by like no movie I can remember.<P>I have to see it again and again and again and…