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Negative points first .
First of all, I don't understand why Jackson left out the Gandalf / witch king scene from the theatrical release. still, he may explain this on the commentaries that I've yet to watch.
The first thing I noticed when the film ended was where was the 48 minutes of new scenes? It just didn't feel like there was that much extra.
Houses of healing. Really, there was hardly anything at all. Just Aragorn squeezing some water over eowyn's face. And, what, 30 seconds between Eowyn and Faramir to fall in love?
And final negative point. I was desperatly waiting for any scenes of Merry's entrance into Minas Tirith and Gandalf's best line that Merry should have been brought inot the city in great honour. Also, Eowyn's line to eomer that Merry should be made a Knight of Rohan. Pity, really.
Anyway, enough negatives, now positives.
The Mouth of Sauron. Whow, best 'monster' in the film by a mile. Absoultely rivetting. The way he quickly snaps his head towards each person as they talk or make a sound. Really creepy. And hey, I don't mind him having his head chopped off by Aragorn.
crossroads. yay! although it's sam that noticies the shaft of light lighting up the king's head, not frodo. one of my favourite parts of the book back in.
aragorn with the palantir. really explains how he diverts sauron's gaze from the hobbits. I know this happens earlier in the book, but it seems to me to be faithful to what actually happens. although the evenstar smashing to pieces???? why?
voice of saruman. excellent. why are people complaining that theoretically they could not have heard saruman's voice from that far up. What, and they're ok with a magic ring making someone invisible????
Eomer explaining to eowyn that war wasn't for women and hobbits. ha ha ha, you silly fool, with one quick stab from a hobbit and a final blow from a woman, the fate of Middle-earth was saved. without the death of the witch king, minas tirith would probably be raised to the ground, and more importantly, the two orc hunters that frodo and sam stumbled upon would have no doubt found the hobbits and captured the Ring. end of story......
sam and frodo caught by the travelling orcs. pretty much as the book is, except I don't remember frodo picking a fight with Sam in the book!
What a lot of these scenes give us, as in TT, is explanations to some of the sticking points in the theatrical release. for example, Pippin now seing Minas Tirith in flames (rather than Aragorn later on) has more credence, as Gandalf is told by Saruman that 'something festers in the heart of middle-earth' (ie denethor / minas tirith) and Gandalf doesn't know at that point exactly where Sauron will strike. when pippin explains his vision, gandalf understands.
corsairs. at least he didn't waste too much time over this with a major fight scene. one quick shot of jackson taking a fall and it was over.
Lots of other points to mention, but we'll no doubt pick up on them over the next few weeks on these boards.
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