[Kalimac]

Maril - $10 says you're on (and frankly, for me it would be worth losing ten dollars to see a Gollum scene like that on the DVD - sad, aren't I?). And wow, that was quite a job with your stopwatch. Can't think of a cut I disagreed with - though there have to be some closeups of Frodo, same as with the Ring - just not quite to the point that they took it. And Midgardsormen, I see your point about stopping at Merry's being kind of awkward - but a little tinkering with Shire geography (yes, I know it's sacrilege, but still ) could put Merry's house directly on their way to Bree, and in that situation it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to have them stop there. <P>I really like all these rewrites; the trouble is there's so much material it's impossible to comment on it. One thing I wanted to comment on was the Galadriel scene, since it seems to be a universal non-favorite (I don't know...it wasn't my favorite but it didn't really bother me that much either. Not sure why). Obviously a lot of the CGI can be cut, but I don't want to cut it down too much; it has to be a frightening scene because we need to get an impression that this is a truly powerful Elf who, if she chose, could be seriously contending with the likes of Saruman or Sauron - and since they've been so colorfully shown she needs to be too. My own preference would be to keep the voice that they used in the movie but make the graphics more the way they are when Arwen first appears to Frodo; just a simple white light. The contrast between the terrible voice and the Elf-light which we previously saw with Arwen would be jarring enough, IMHO. You'd be seeing the good, so to speak, but hearing what it could turn into.<P>Maybe that's still a little cheesy, but I'd rather overdo it than underdo it. Probably this is residual scarring from the Galadriel scene in Bakshi's LOTR, where that whole scene consists of Galadriel sort of twirling around once and chirping "I pass the test!" and all you can think is "WHAT test?" She looked about as threatening as Daphne from "Scooby Doo." It's better that the Elves seem frightening than feeble.