[The Saucepan Man]

I have never been this "spoiled" in relation to a film in my life. Normally, I only look at (largely spoiler free) reviews before going to see a film. I did do some poking around on LotR websites before going to see FotR, but that was mainly to find out who was playing who and what the major characters looked like. And I didn't see anything (other than reviews and trailers) before going to see TTT.<P>But, with RotK, I have got into all the "spoilers" in a big way. I even review the ToRN News section, which is a great source of spoilers, on a regular basis. The main reason for this is my being a member of the Downs. Since I am interested in the films, I find it impossible to resist looking at (and contributing to) all the various spoiler threads here. In essence, this comes down to basic curiosity, but I also agree that it is fun to speculate about what might happen and how things might be portrayed (and who makes the "a day will come" speech ) in light of the snippets of information that we have, and to see the views of others on such things.<P>Although it is not my reason for looking for spoilers, I do agree that it does help in coming to terms with major changes without spoiling one's enjoyment of the films. For example, before seeing FotR, I was aware of Arwen's expanded role in the film and so this didn't bother me too much when I saw it. Whereas, because I hadn't looked at any spoilers before going to see TTT, I spent a large part of my first viewing of the film preoccupied with the various changes, and only really enjoyed it second time round. Mind you, there is one major issue that I have with RotK which I don't think I am going to be able fully to come to terms with (click <A HREF="http://forum.barrowdowns.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=4&t=002423&p=2" TARGET=_blank>here</A> to find out which one).<P>Ultimately, however, it seems to me that the secrecy surrounding these films is such that there will be enough "surprises" kept back by New Line to ensure that we don't "know it all" before we take our seats. I had hoped that Shelob would be one of these (although it is also nice not to have to worry about whether I will like the way that she looks). But it does look like we will see very little, if anything, of the Army of the Dead and the Grey Havens before the film actually comes out.