I went and saw it this afternoon with my eleven year old daughter. I've read the books about eight or nine times over the last thirty years and never get tired of them. Somehow they managed to drag out every image from my poor addled brain, that I saw while reading the trilogy and put it on screen. My daughter, who generally flits about like a fly on the window, said she'd gladly sit for eight hours if they'd only released the entire film all at once. It's a great film and I was amazed by how close they stayed to Tolkien's images. I'm waiting for next Christmastime for more and have extracted a promise from Emmy to be my date for the next two installments even if it won't be cool to go to the show with the Old Man when she's 12 and 13.
Tweed
PS.I thought Liv Tyler made a real fine Arwen;~)