[Kalimac]

Lord of Angmar - I agree about Elrond. It's true that in the tale of Aragorn and Arwen, he certainly wasn't friendly to the match, but in the movies he does go a little over the top. It's almost as if he's threatening her, as opposed to being quietly discouraging (sorry, but even in the books I did get the impression that he wouldn't have exactly been downhearted if she had changed her mind). But he shouldn't be quite so loud about it.<P>About Boromir knowing the history of the Ring - I don't really think that's dumbing down, just conflation. It's not really patronizing to the audience to have Boromir knowing the story a bit earlier than he would have otherwise; I think the main reason they did it would be so that they wouldn't have to have the council scene where they recap all the events that we saw at the beginning of the movie! (And they had to show that at the beginning - leaving the Ring's origins mysterious until it was explained at the council, an hour and half in, would have been expecting way too much of any audience). It's true that in the book, Boromir doesn't know until then, but it's not that unrealistic to have him knowing something - after all, in the movie version, there's no reason why the story about Isildur and the Ring disappearing into the Gladden fields shouldn't have gotten out in some way.