I agree, Andrea. The complaints I hear most are "they cut THIS out" or "It's too LONG!" and "I didn't understand ___" or "they didn't need to explain ___!" Personally I would have preferred 18 hours or so to complete the whole book, but you can't always get what you want.

All in all I think Pete has done a marvelous job. The movies don't begin to replace the books, but the trilogy certainly stands on it's own as a piece of cinema.

Off to take a shower -- we have tickets for a matinee. With any luck we'll get a lively LA audience that boos and cheers and contributes to that magical difference between watching a movie and sharing a movie in the dark with a lot of other people.