The first time I watched the film, I was just totally stunned by the spectacle. Also, it was about 15 years since I had read the books. I am now re-reading them and it's making me like the film less! Altho I can appreciate that you tell a story one way in a book and a different way on the screen, and that it had to be severely compressed. But HOW could PJ leave out Galadriel's gift giving? How is Frodo going to defeat Shelob now? Will he just pull out a phial of starlight with no explanation, or will they miss that out too? I also think it's a great shame that they skipped the reforging of Anduril and didn't make it clear that Aragorn carries it afterwards. This made the (overly extended) battle sequence at the end look like any other cheesy action movie, with a hero who remains unscathed while mowing down baddies left, right and centre. No explanation that his sword was something special. Plus, Boromir's death was short and simple and thus more dignified in the book, he didn't take half an hour to die! I can see why the hobbits went straight from Hobbiton to Bree, but why couldn't Merry and Pippin be involved from the beginning? The fact that they bump into Frodo and Sam and just get dragged along changes the dynamic between the 4. I personally am glad that they missed out Bombadil though. Imagine the poor actor having to portray that!!!
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