[Elladan and Elrohir]

Talk about a whiz-bang way to open up a film. I absolutely love it. The score is phenomenal, too.

Thanks to the extremely hard work of Andy Serkis and WETA, Gollum truly comes to life on the screen. Unbelievable how real he is. From this point, all CGI characters will be divided into two categories: the pre-Gollum era (Jar-Jar) and the post-Gollum era (Aslan and Kong). Gollum is a watershed in CGI.

I loved the extension with the elvish rope and the box of salt, since the scene is in the book and the box of salt is mentioned as one of Sam's stowed-away items as the Company leaves Rivendell. There will be many other small things from the book to watch for in this film as in the last one, such as the horsetail on Eomer's helm, and the orc-head on the stake (which I'm sure PJ would have put in even if it wasn't in the book).

I think TTT may be the "most improved" of the EE's. All the extensions are GREAT. Most of the ones in ROTK are good, but then there's the drinking contest, and Gandalf getting stomped by the Witch-king.