[doug*platypus]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> did she seem scary to you? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>No way, Estelyn. She was <B>just a big spider</B>. Totally animalistic, nothing sinister about her at all. Even my wife wasn't scared! She rightly pointed out that creepy-crawlies aren't scary if you can't see their eyes.<P>I think the Shelob scenes in the movie worked well, although there were certainly some moments that were strung out a bit too much. Many, many posters have referred to Peter Jackson as a horror director before. This is in fact an error. His early movies such as Braindead, Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles were splatterfest, not horror. As for <I>The Frighteners</I>, that was a very toned down pop-horror that was only scary because of its violence (like that chick with the knife - eeya! scary!) The type of anticipation and fear that films like <I>The Shining</I> convey are far beyond the grasp of Peter Jackson, and Shelob's Lair regrettably showed that. <P>We missed out by not seeing Shelob as a brooding presence before her attack, and her eyes had no character at all. In fact why am I saying "her"? That was just a spider with no personality, no evil, and so we missed out on a great opportunity to be <B>really</B> frightened. Tolkien's description of the impenetrable darkness and filth of her lair was reduced to: <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR> What's that horrible smell? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>It wasn't even dark! <P>Dear Galadriel: thanks for the light of Eärendil, turns out we didn't need it after all! Shelob's lair is nice and airy, with some good mood lighting, and it turns out that when you shove the Phial in her face she doesn't really mind too much. One of them knives would have been cooler!<P>I agree that Sam's emotion wasn't conveyed well enough, either. There should have been a tear at least. This is Samwise Gamgee we're talking about, not <B>the Saminator</B>. Personally I would have liked to see him use both swords, dropping one at the last minute for the final stab. I don't think that Sam winning the fight was convincing enough, and PJ should have made a point that Shelob impaling herself was what really hurt her. But of course with that ridiculous stinger there, that would have been difficult to do. Also, there is a time for lugging your precious cooking gear around, and a time to put it down. Which time would this be, Sam?<P>The scene where Shelob crept out of the crack and finally stung Frodo was good, and helped to redeem this part of the movie somewhat. But again, the fact that she had crept up above Frodo was overplayed, if only slightly. <P>I don't see any reason why Gollum had to attack Frodo. Wasn't he bound to his oath to the master of the Precious? The one which he swore on the Precious? I think it would have worked better just to have him slink off and return later. His coming back from that fall off the cliff is too unbelievable.