[Ulmo]

Well I certainly did NOT think that the movie stunk, but it could have been better. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie, but a few things in the movie are starting to bug me; gnawing at me really. These are things that the average viewer, the ones who have not read the books, would not know or care about, but to us they do. <P>In the book, fellow Hobbits Pippin and Merry are fun-loving but deeply committed friends of Frodo’s, who secretly plan to join his flight into danger, while in the film they’re just dim-witted, pranksters, who fall in by mistake. <P>Sam, who in the book feels a stirring duty to see the quest through, whines here to go home. <P>Elrond the half-elf is depicted as a mortal-disdaining snob, concerned for his own hide, instead of the good of all, that the ring depart his land. Not to mention the fact that Elrond is one of the greatest Elves in the history of Middle-earth. An elf who was born in the First Age, keeper of the Great Ring, Vilya, leading member of the White Council, and at the time of The Council of Elrond, he was over 6,500 years old! A character of this renown needs to be treated with more respect (and more screen time!). <P>The elf queen Galadriel becomes a witchy cartoon. And we never get to see the gifts she gives every member of the Fellowship, only Frodo's was shown. And I wish they hadn't changed the Mirror of Galadriel sceen. <P>Gandalf shies from journeying into the dwarf mines of Moria, while in the book he’s the one who advances that idea, despite the peril it presents to him. <P>The onscreen Aragorn is badly in need of a couch on which to pour out his phobia about claiming his kingship because his ancient forebear had proved unworthy. In the book, rather, he is anxious to claim his kingship, and is torn between his desire to lead his land and his loyalty to Frodo and his quest. <P>I like the expanded role of Arwen, but dammit, why did you have to get rid of Glorfindel! He fought in the Battle of Fornost! <P>I wish they would have shown Gollum following the fellowship on the Anduin River <P>.....But I digress, the movie is still one of the best movie of all time (IMHO), but o man, with a few minor, ahem, improvements, this movie could have been....................