[Folwren]

The long and short of it is, the movie is not as good as the book. It probably never could be. But, it is (probably) true that if they had stuck closer to the book, as davem obviously wishes they had, the movie would have at least been almost as good as the books. That being said, I don't know that this exactly deserved such a heated debate.

Anyhow, about Gimli - yes, his character was badly abused, and all in order to make some comic relief. I personaly feel that there are plenty of humorous parts in the books and there could have been several jokes drawn out of those parts. Gollum and Sam are hilarious to read about. Gimli and Eomer have a few funny exchanges. Aragorn even jokes once or twice, as does Legolas, and Gandalf even. Merry and Pippin........they were quite often in the books.

I think over all it would have been better if there had been other people sharing the jokes, rather than Gimli being the brunt of most of them. But often in movies now adays, I've noticed, there is one jester - one fool - who makes most of the laughs. It can be all very well and good in some movies, but I think in this case, it just didn't fit.

-- Folwren