Not seen the second one, but I was blown away by the first one. I could have happily had much longer on that, particularly on some bits which were rushed and so didn't really stand up, like the meetings with Elrond and Galadriel which are important characterisation elements.

In reply to Mudlark and Homeless:-

The good-guy/bad-guy themes you know are going to be in there before you see the film. This is a fantasy film, like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Conan, etc. Or for that matter like Dirty Harry, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, etc. There will be some good guys, and some bad guys.

In point of fact though, LotR *isn't* just good guys and bad guys - the whole reason the ring gets lost originally is that an originally-good guy gets tempted by the ring and dies; Boromir goes roughly the same way, but his last stand gives him redemption; Saruman was Gandalf's teacher/best-friend but sells his soul for power; the elves and dwarves hate each other (something which was cut is some major character development on this for Gimli); and the film has showed Elrond having real doubts about whether the elves should be helping at all, or whether they should just leave the "lesser races" to their fate.

Re the effects, I didn't think they were impressive either. I thought they were *seamless*. A good effect *shouldn't* jump up and down and say "Look at me!!!" The only times I thought it didn't work were in some of the long-shot stuff - long shots of the two elf towns, the big statues on the river, and a few of the "flying" shots around Saruman's tower. They didn't really do much for the story.

The tall/short bits you didn't notice, because they always worked perfectly. The ring effects I thought worked well, and the battle scenes were just stunning.

Regarding the film not tying up loose ends, I don't know of anyone who doesn't know it's the first of three films. I really don't see how that can be a criticism, any more than you can criticise Empire Strikes Back or other mid-series films for leaving loose ends.

Re developing the characters, that *is* a problem; I agree on that front. When cuts were made, a lot of those cuts were in the character development stuff. Another 15 minutes or so of conversation might have helped - I know (from the extended DVD) that these scenes were filmed but were left out of the final cut.

Ad for Guest's criticism of not following the story, who cares? Jackson's added a lot, and the first film at least was a better film for that. Elrond, Boromir and Aragorn all have much more depth than in the books, which is only a good thing. What makes a book is not what makes a film, and thank god Jackson understood that.

Graham.