[doug*platypus]

Miranda Otto was an excellent Éowyn for this movie, and I appreciate her much more than I did after seeing <I>The Two Towers</I>. True, she is not as depicted in the book, but whether this constitutes a 'Crime Against Tolkienity' is up for the kangaroo courts to decide. Personally, this movie showed me a lot of changes from the book that I could actually live with. <P>Although I still maintain that Cate Blanchett or Uma Thurman could have been my perfect Éowyn, Miranda Otto and the writers were trying to achieve something different in the movie. I don't think the character loses anything by becoming more human. Far from it. Being fearless is not the same as being brave. movieÉowyn suddenly found herself in a battle and out of her depth. However she conquered her fear, which is what true bravery is. I only wished they hadn't showed her cheesy battle-cry before the charge. Very poorly done. It would have been better if we had just seen her steel herself for the charge.<P>On the whole I think Peter Jackson did the confrontation with the Witch-King well with limited screen time. Like everyone else that has read the books, I would love to spend a lot more time on that scene. But if it has to come down to choices, I think it was probably well edited. Enough of it was there, true to the book. The hurry to the Black Gate and Mount Doom was a far bigger problem.<P>I wish Éowyn had chopped the beast's head off with one clean stroke. And I didn't really see the change in lighting when it was destroyed, although maybe I'll pick that up second time round.<P> <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> Feast on his flesh! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Ranks right up there with: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> Give up the halfling, she-elf! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Quite apart from the thousands of people he has killed, the Witch-King deserves to implode into nothingness just for those <B>awful</B> lines!! But that's a bit off-topic.