[Nogrod]

As I have been aquinted with LotR something like 25 years, I surely had quite clear views & opinions about the whole stuff. So I was watching the films more from the perspective of "how have they seen it" or "what kind of choises have they made".

Even though I admit liking the films, I must regret, that for me, they were mainly visualizations of the story. Kind of illustrating certain parts of the whole, with some quite unhappy alterations and only a couple of good ones. As the whole LotR is so impossible to turn into a movie, I would have hoped for a little more daring or artistically more ambitious rendering of the story to a pic. But that would not have selled as well, and would not have been financed at all to begin with...

But what a visualization it was!!! I do think that PJ is right in saying, that New Zealand really is Middle Earth! And that truly has affected me, kind of taken over my mind and the visual imagination of the ME. Of course one can pick up particular cases of protest, and some casting, including a couple of very central roles, can be criticized. But really: my understanding about how the ME looks like and how it feels, has been heavily influenced by the films.