[Guinevere]

Shelob herself was done well, and quite scary enough. Very naturalistic, only NO real spiders have stingers in their abdomen!! <BR>Tolkien says she stung Frodo - but with her mouth-devices (whatever this may be called) "she had stung him in the neck", "her beak drabbling a spittle of venom" she is described, and: "she gathered herself for another spring, this time to crush and sting to death, no little bite of poison to still the struggling of her meat." <P>But in other points I agree totally with Doug Platypus! It should have been much darker, so that the phial would really shine out exceedingly bright and hurt Shelob's eyes. <BR> I can't see the necessity of separating Sam from Frodo. In the book he was stung AFTER he got out of the lair and was running ahead "in a fey mood".<P>I was soo disappointed by the way Frodo stumbled and lay on the ground, half enmeshed in webs and in that situation took out the phial and mumbled weakly and hastily "Aiya, Earendil ancalima!" It really was nothing like the scene in the book where Frodo, phial and Sting in hand, walks bravely towards Shelob and drives her back. "Stars and glory! But the Elves would make a song of that!" says Sam. I love that!<P>But really I shouldn't have expected anything else - movie-Frodo is weak in all the situations where book Frodo showed his courage!!