[Marileangorifurnimaluim]

Yeah, I suggested the Arwen flashbacks be at Helm's Deep. You are quite correct, there was simply too much of her, more than was needed to drive the plot forward. Every time Arwen showed up, the pacing of the movie came to a standstill. Not good when it was already a little sluggish during Aragorn's fall and survival subplot.<P>I don't think it's a matter of any individual's taste in movies. Most people like a variety of different types of movies in any case, so I don't think it's fair to say that if someone didn't like Sam's speech they must be an Action film buff. I feel Sam's speech stuck out like a sore thumb for a number of reasons. <BR><UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI> He was tramping through unfamiliar territory at the time. People walking don't tend to make speeches, they speak in short sentences because their minds are on their surroundings. (Unless they know the area well, feel secure, etc.) It was unnatural timing for a speech. Forced. It would have worked better sitting down, encamped.<BR><LI> It was out of character for Sam in particular to make speeches, as we mentioned.<BR><LI> It was so much longer than anything anyone else had to say in the movie. I get the impression that other characters' long speeches were cut, so Sam's speech was out of balance with the rest of the dialogue in the movie.<BR><LI> It was awkwardly bookended with Gollum's soliloquoy. Even Shakespeare, with his love of soliloquies, didn't make the mistake of having one right after the other, wearying the audience and watering down the point of both.<BR><LI> PJ chose to make an Action/Adventure movie. In the context of that sort of movie it brought the pacing to a standstill.<BR><LI> Something personal: this is just me, but I recognized what Sam said from various parts of the books. I recognized the speech as a collection of Sam's greatest hits out of context. I think it was less impactful than if these little nuggets had remained scattered throughout the movie-dialogue. Some character development was lost by assembling them in this way, and it gave Elijah less to work with in the relationship with Sam in Ithilien. What he said was wonderful, but it was a mistake to sweep Sam's verbal gems into one pile like this. I'm not impressed with Fran Boyens.<BR></UL>