Smell this, I think it's expired...

[the phantom]

First, I agree with Gurthang's point about urgency.

Second, fighting is not a suitable replacement for tension and suspense. Sure, I love a great fight scene as much as the next guy, but fights should be breaks in the overall suspense and tension and not actually try to contain all the suspense and tension. I believe that Fellowship did a much better job sustaining suspense and tension throughout the movie, where as the other two movies had more fights but less substance between.

A good example of what I'm trying to say is what happened in Moria. The fight with the cave troll and orcs was great and all, but the part that followed where the group was running through the columns as thousands of orcs chased them was just as exciting. And then the orcs have them surrounded and you're thinking "How in the world are they going to get out of this?" Tension and suspense galore. And then the orcs run off as if they are scared and a fiery light is moving towards the fellowship, and the audience is thinking "Oh my goodness, what in the world is going on? What were those orcs scared of? What is that light?"

That sort of drama is immensely superior to non-stop fighting. The ideal movie mixes the two together. The fights do entertain, but the parts in between grip the audience and keep them enchanted.

I was gripped much more by the Fellowship.

In addition, I agree with what alatar said-

the characters became less interesting as they became more and more caricatures of themselves. Gimli the clown, Legolas the ultimate surfer/warrior, etc. Some characters grew, yet not as much as they did in FOTR.

Also, I stand by what I said earlier about the other movies being more "typical". In other words, more like other movies. There were too many cliché lines, looks, and moments that had more of a modern movie feel to them than a Middle Earth feel.

Examples (some of these might be from EE versions in case you don't recognize them)-
1) Gimli's "humorous" bodily functions.
2) Gimli getting drunk.
3) Legolas surfing down the stairs of Helm's Deep.
4) Aragorn's disdainful/grossed-out look at the Mouth of Sauron.
5) Denethor as a crazy mean old man rather than a once great man driven to dark deeds by grief and despair.
6) Faramir's lack of the nobility and magic that made his men love him in the book.

That's all I have time to list now, but I am sure some of you can think of some more. There were just too many moments that seemed to be gunning for a "That was sweet!" or "Ha ha ha" or "Yeah! All right!" sort of reaction from the audience. That is what a typical modern movie shoots for, not a Middle Earth movie.

I hate to say something that would bring to people's minds the infamous "Dumbing it Down" thread, but it seems to me that Fellowship was not as dumbed down as the other two movies.

[Lathriel]

CBC really likes showing LOTR. I guess its because that is the only time anybody actually tunes in. (They showed fellowship about three times already)

The first time I saw FOTR is theatres I didn't like it very much because a few things really bothered me. Things like the cave troll (the fight seemed to last forever) the orc breeding, Lothlorien was way tpp dark and Galadriel became just way too creepy for my taste. Actually FOTR EE cleared this all up and of all the EE's I believe FOTR is my favourite.

However, I also really love TTT and ROTK. In fact I can never decide which movie I like better. One thing that I find with ROTK is that I am emotionally exhausted after watching it since my emotions just run so high during the movie. Usually all I want to do after watching it is to go to bed.

It just boiles down to the fact that I love all of them to bits.

[alatar]

Just a quick post...

In FOTR, Frodo went from the peaceful Shire all the way to Parth Galen. A lot had changed\happened along the way.

In TTT he walked and walked and walked to Mordor. He started 'almost there' and ended the movie 'almost there.'

In ROTK, he walks some more and after some 'stuff' he finally gets to Mount Doom.

Using my Frodo-meter, I would then rank the films 1, 3 and 2 respectively.

[Lathriel]

To add to Alatar's post
Legolas's journey
FOTR he used his bow and fought
TTT fought some more but added a surfing stunt
ROTK before ending his journey he fought and surfed some more. (Cause he knew he wouldn't be able to get this chance for a long time afterwards

[Gurthang]

How about Gimli...at his worst.

FotR- Was snoring during Sam's poetry recital.
TTT- Can't get up after falling on his back. Gets beat by Legolas at drinking.
RotK- Burped, belched and pouted(after getting beat by Leggy again) his way to Minas Tirith.

It's like alatar said earlier; they just became "caricatures of themselves".

[Legolas]

Fellowship is by far my favorite of the trilogy. It's more magical, I guess- it's not as typical as the other two movies (which were great and all, just not as great as FOTR). Fellowship is more... Middle-Earthian, somehow.

That's exactly how I feel. There was a little redemption with Minas Tirith in Return of the King, but The Fellowship of the Ring was still well above the others.

As with these newer Star Wars episodes, I wish they'd leave these serious, epic movies just as their storylines really are...serious. Humor has obviously got to be there, but I'd suggest that they use a tenth of the amount they attempted, and lose the cornier out-of-character jokes (i.e. Gimli). The only resemblance between book Gimli and movie Gimli was his appearance and heritage.

[Saurreg]

And to add on to the accolades already heaped on FoTR; none of the other two movies had a scene as powerful nor sniff-sniff as Boromir's death/redemption scene. That was one of the major highlights of the film for me. Sean Bean was brilliant as usual.