[Gorwingel]

Well I have to owe everything to the movies, because that is how I got here. I know that some people do not consider people who saw the movies before they read the books "real fans”, but FOTR is what introduced this entire world to me. Though after reading the books and seeing the movies I do personally think that the books are much greater because they are more about the story, the quieter moments, and the language.<P>Well you do all know that right now New Line and the Tolkien estate are in a fight about many things (building a museum to hold the movie props in New Zealand, the possibility of a Hobbit movie, etc.) and I personally think that this is a great display of the feelings that some fans have about the movies. The fans who have really not been heard, and who I think should have been heard more. J.R.R. Tolkien would have hated all of this, because all this nonsense was not he, and it all really against his personal beliefs. Wasn’t it the publishing house that sold the rights for the films? Because I don’t think it was him. I could never see him personally selling the rights so that someone could make a film of his works.<P>I do get very extremely annoyed about the intense marketing of these films though. I really think it is too much. The batteries, the cars, the cell phones! It is getting ridicules! I think though that part of this marketing blitz is because New Line is the studio it is. This is a fairly young studio who is not known for epic filmmaking, and whose other major franchises are Austin Powers, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Blade. But, oh well. I think the films could have been worse, but I do thing that some of the changes, even though PJ swears they were necessary, are not.