Is all the "magic" gone?

[Bombadil]

Peter Jackson said something along the lines of: I wasn't going for fantasy, I was going for history. I understand what he is talking about, but I think it was rather bold of him to say so. After all, LOTR is a fantasy.

The latter two films seemed to rely too much on misplaced pranks and out of place humour and special effects for them to suggest Middle-earth. They remained movies rather than a special place. imho

Very correct Bethberry. I was extremely upset that almost every line of Gimli's in TTT was for comic relief. A specially irritating line was something like:

He twitched because I have my axe embedded in his nervous system!

This line form TTT EE sickened me. NERVOUS SYSTEM!? COME ON! A huge part of taking away from the magic, i believe, was the lack of sinign. Except for a few songs by the hobbits, and Aragorn at the end, and Eowyn in TTT EE,( and possibly a few others that may have slipped my mind) the whole trilogy was missing the merry singing and folky spirit that was embodied in LOTR.

Hey dol, thats all i have to say
now i shall be on my way!