Just seen it. I suspect the bits I thought best were the bits the people who like the big battles thought were a drag. I could have done with less of those, too much like the kind of computer games I don't go in for. From that point of view I think the first film got the balance best.

But the slower bits were magic, especially the scenes with Sam and Frodo. And I was surprised to find that on balance I found I agreed with cutting out the Scouring of the Shire - the scene with the four back in the pub knowing where they'd been, and what they'd been through, and nobody else there could ever understand, that was eloquently done. I think Tolkien as a survivor of the Western Front would have liked that.

I tried to get to see it when there wouldn't be too many kids around, but didn't quite manage that. Still, that was interesting enough, because it wasn't a riot, just lots of voices in the dark really getting involved. "Oh no!" "Behind you!" And towards the end there's a scene when everyone on the screen applauds the hobbits - and just before they started clapping, spontaneously half the audience did the same.