[Elladan and Elrohir]

I loved the scene. It's as shocking an introduction into the next movie as the Foundations of Stone scene was for TTT, and I think it sets the tone at the beginning of the film by putting the focus exactly where it needs to be -- on the Ring. And on Gollum, of course. It hints that in the end, it's all going to come down to Gollum's lust for the Ring. Well, they add Frodo in there, too, but we'll tackle that when it comes.

Alatar, I'm not sure why you so despise Gollum's use of the word "silly", but I don't have a problem with it. It doesn't sound out of place to me, at all.

Believe me, people need to have it beat into them what the Ring is and what it does. Some people I know still don't understand it, even after everything PJ does to make it clear.

I don't think they really have time to go into everything that happened to Gollum. They emphasize what should be emphasized, which is that he became an outcast and had to go hole up in some mountain that just happened to be a lair of goblins. This isn't the story, after all; just the prologue, so they need to spend as little time on it as they can get away with, and bring us to our staunch heroes.