[ninlaith]

I must say, after all is said and done, it is still just a movie. A directors portrayal of a book. it's not supposed to be exactly like the book and it is exhausting to worry about being like the book. No one is going to see the movie or the books exactly the same. We are all individuals and we each have a mind's eye of our own. All in all I still think tolkien would have been very very pleased. Reading the books you really get to know a character inside and out. Watching the movie the audience can only see the surface. it's the actors job to show you the character and the directors interpretation of the character to the actor. With that said, in my opinion the portrayals of the characters physically were next to, for lack or a better word, perfect. However, character development was somewhat lacking. Expounding on what I said before everyone sees things differently and some things are going to matter more to some than others. For instance the character development of Frodo. Book Frodo was a scholarly fellow but was as merry as could be. At the beginning of FOTR we saw how merry he can be and at the end of ROTK, in my opinion, I saw what Frodo should have been all throughout the movie, just strong, brave, wise..you know all that goods stuff. And honestly I cannot see book Frodo standing on the shore of Parth Galen shedding a few tears. Not saying Elijah wasn't wonderful and loveable, just perhaps a little misinterpreted. Sam was perfect I must say. I have no qualms about him. My minds eye truly came to life. Aragorn I can also say was next to perfect, but Viggo is one amazingly thrilling man so it was expected. Arwen....Liv was perfect for the role, however, unecessary. Galadriel...enough said. That is who Cate was. Same for Gimli. Pippin and Merry, my goodness, absolutely hilarious. However, not what I expected. But that's a good thing. I was hoping they would mention Merry's boating skills and his relationship with the trees and the Ents, but I suppose it wasn't exactly needed. I'm glad they made Pippin somewhat brighter than he was at the beginning of the book and that they made Merry a little less serious. It was a nice balance. I didn't feel like merry was leading pippin by the nose all the time in the movies. Legolas, Orlando....oh man...exactly how I pictured Legolas, but I must say he was a little naive for my liking. however i have to give Orlando a break for the fact that it was technically his first real movie role. I just didn't feel Orlando could really live in middle-Earth, but he was still amazing. that's not all but that's enough for now. I'll add more later.