I'm reading this thread for the first time today after seeing the film only yesterday. So here're my thoughts- [disclaimer: I'm not a big movie buff/critic to begin with]

I have no problem with the orcs being "all bad" - we get to see enough inner struggle between good/evil with Gollum and Frodo. BTW- if you haven't read how they "did" Gollum it's pretty interesting stuff. I did wonder why he was so "visible"- as I recall from the books many years ago- he was usually in the shadows/dark etc.

Several have mentioned the music: there was a melodic motif used a lot in this film- usually for the noble/let's-go-do-it parts that was played on either high cello/viola, etc. Every time it began, I expected/wanted to hear uillean pipes- or at least something more "primitive" sounding. Did anyone else notice this? Am I typecasting [tunecasting?] here?

I would have expected the songs from the book to have figured into the movies- not as background Enya stuff, but in at least one scene.

There was another thing I noticed: in one action scene where Gimli [on horseback] grabs Legolas to lift him up onto the horse, there was what appeared to be technical snafu - almost as if L. was jumping off the horse with the film reversed. 'Course everything happens so fast, and you can't rewind it, but that's what it looked like to me.

On the LOTR website there is some info on how the main actors developed their character's accents. I noticed the East London thing too--I was just too glad they didn't give the orcs southern [US] accents.

But noticing things didn't take away from the film, I loved it and left the theater feeling almost elven!

T