[mark12_30]

Not I, Saucy. I love the EE. Much praise to give, contrasted with one gripe. The glass is , hmmmm, ninety-five to ninety-eight percent FULL.

A Few Spoilers:

Eowyn's healing: Brief, but brilliant. Tribute to the fans, every bit of it. You had to know the book to know what was going on, to read behind the lines: Aragorn dips the cloth into the water: we know it's aethelas-water. He laves her brow with it: that's what you do with aethelas water. Then her cold, lifeless, very-grey arm-- her shield arm! We know why. And finally we watch her slowly wake-- we know why; there was a long struggle first, not but you couldn't take the time to explain it to non-bookies. Eomer is sitting very near, very concerned, while Aragorn does all this: but when Eowyn opens her eyes, who is she seeing? Is it Eomer? I'll have to watch it again to be sure. They never even explained that "the hands of a king are the hands of a healer." Therefore-- the whole scene was in a sense meaningless to those who hadn't read the book. It was a pure fan-tribute (not unlike Treebeard quoting Bombadil's lines to pseudo-Old Man Willow.)

That showed me (once again) how dedicated these film-makers (the whole team) are to making Old-school Tolkien fans as happy as they can. They already had their oscars, they could have just sat on their laurels. I'm glad they didn't.

Now for my one gripe: Black Gate, MoS. (I liked his portrayal just fine; I thought the arrogant, coquettish tiliting of his head was excellent. He thought he was just the cat's meow. Ugh! ) And I thought the whole Mithril shirt thing was well-done. But here's what bugged me. Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Elessar, Elfstone, the Heir of Isildur: breaking parley by murdering the messenger? Completely out of character. Where's the honor in that? No challenge, no warning, just-- whack. That breaks the code of war, and that is something Aragorn would not have done. And (while I'm at it) why was Gimli nudging Legolas' bow, supposed to be funny? Same thing. Breaking parley-- *not* cool.

Okay, end rant.

Otherwise: I loved it. Here are a few of my hilites:

Eomer's lecture: Good setup for what follows.
Merry talks to Eowyn: Very nice.
Balking Stybba: Excellent!!
Faramir & Pippin-- superb, I thought.
Magnificent: Rath Dinen. The sweep and scope of the city is fuller, more historical, and it brings TTT "Arwen at Aragorn's bier" scene momentarily back into focus.
Eomer's grief: too brief... but I'm glad it was there.
Houses of healing: did you SEE that garden-room? Or whatever it was, that rear-aerial shot, in the houses of healing? Gorgeous.
The orc with the Mithril shirt getting away-- Very key.
"You see, Mister Frodo? Some luck at last!" And then here come the troops. Great Irony.
Frodo picking a fight with Sam among the orcs: I liked it. It showed a Frodo that still had some brains left.
Sam's Pans, Sam's Pans! Oh, that was SO good.