[Iris Alantiel]

Maybe this is just the lifelong Tolkien fan in me talking, but I just found the characters much easier to relate to in LotR than in the last two Matrix movies. As for the plot, it was infinitely easier to understand in LotR. <P>I loved the first Matrix movie and I was looking forward to the sequels, but I was extremely disappointed. I thought they were confusing and pretty uninteresting, and by the third one I really didn't care too much about any of the characters at all. (WARNING: SPOILER AHEAD.) In the first movie, and even the second one to some extent, Trinity was one of my favourite characters, but her death scene was so drawn out, I was like, "Get on with it already". <P>Sure, LotR has its flaws (the movie, of course), and I'm not just talking about points where they altered the books. I'm more referring to things like Gimli's rather inconsistent personality over the course of the three movies, and their failure to explain exactly what happened to Éowyn's mysteriously disappearing love for Aragorn (although I still have hope for the EE). But at least the trilogy is overall relatively coherent and they used devices that made you actually care about the characters most of the time. <P>But like I said, that could just be because I already knew and loved the characters for most of my life. So if I've said anything that bothers or offends anyone, feel free to disregard: I'm probably biased anyway.