Mission Accomplished

Well, I watched all 3 parts of the Lord of the Rings yesterday. I started at about 130p and ended about 1045p. A very enjoyable day. There are a couple of things about the movies I hadn't noticed before. The biggest being how many filler scenes there are in the second movie. There are flash- backs and disembodied "telepathic help" all over the place. The Lady Galadriel is a nosy little witch, always popping into someone's thoughts or mind at exactly the right time. She needs to get a life. She was much better in the books. I think it was a relatively cheap ploy to keep the story going along. There was less reliance on such esoteric help in the books. The main characters were much more on their own. The second is how amazing the dialogues between "Smeagol" and "Gollum" are (the third movie). The whole series of discussions are really masterfully done. Actually they were some of the most disturbing and frightening parts of the story. They give a whole new meaning to split personality. This aspect of Gollum was not really present in the books. The movie really expands on this and actually does a much better job. They also give a really interesting insight into what was happening with Frodo during this time.

The first and third movies were definitely better than the second. I think the first was actually the best of them. Despite everything that happens to Frodo in the third movie, I actually think that most of his really cathartic scenes were in the first movie.

And no, I am not going to mention the Frodo/Sam or Merry/Pippin relationships.