Quite a comprehensive post, Sir alatar! Insightful, humorous, and extremely observant too, I might add. No time at the moment for a long post, but I thought I'd toss in a few quick impressions and comments:
The Eye's dialogue (it's in the subtitles) is, "There is no life in the Void. Only death." Put that together with, "I see you.", and one might get the impression that movie Sauron isn't the sort of guy who could hold up his end of a conversation very well.
The design in this sequence is fantastic. I love the Nazgūl armor, though I might have wished for less uniformity in their costumes and weaponry. I like how their horses don't sound quite like normal horses -- though watching the sequence just now they made me think of Star Wars tauntauns. I love Aragorn's costume, and while I'm at it I really like Viggo in the part. He looks like a man who's put a few hard miles on the old odometer -- far superior to Stuart Townsend, who originally had the part. The shot of his pipe illuminating his eyes is one of my favorites in the trilogy. Love the landscapes, especially during the Strider/hobbits travel montage, and I like that they managed to get a little singing, which is such a big part of Tolkien, into the EE.
The biggest problem I have with the sequence by far is the introduction of woozy Elijah (with the blazing full-screen Eye and all that it implies close behind). I'll get to those when I have more time.
Oh, and by the way, that's a heck of good looking clan you've got there! Cute as buttons, every one. Compliments to you and Mrs. alatar.
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