[Celebuial]

I agree with The Saucepan Man- Lotr wouldn't have been possible without the special effects, but I still feel that there were too many, or that they were just overdone in the third film. Also what you say about the dead kinda does make sense.... I don't agree about the trolls though, for some reason the one that Aragorn stabs in the foot seems so 'fake'. Oh, and I agree about the eye in the first two films, it was exactly as I'd imagined it and with the excellent sound that goes with it, it really is superb.

Ok, about the uber spider comment: I meant that PJ put everything that he hated about spiders into Shelob. For me this kinda took away the creepiness of the close-ups. There was too much going on with her for me to just accept that she was one big bad evil spider out for blood. Anyway, I was being picky- the majority of the scene does feel creepy to me.

I don't deny that there are still great special effects that are used well in the third film, I was just focusing on the bad- what can I say? I'm pesimistic. Obviously it goes without saying that Gollum is a work of genius from Andy Serkis and Weta.

Morsul the dark made a very good point about the size of the oliphaunts. I checked last night and they do seem smaller when Legolas is climbing one compared to when Eyowen and Merry are ridding underneath them!