Ray asks, "What did you think of Lord of the Rings?"

LotR was great.

An amazing feat of condensing. The visuals were pretty much as good as could be expected. Sure, a couple of long shots of hobbits looked like kids in costume, but no biggie. I have a minor issue with the rather cheap-looking effects during Frodo's vision of the Evil Galadriel: strictly Buffy the Vampire Slayer grade. I expect that to be upgraded for the DVD. Did not miss Tom Bombadil, nor his wife the river's daughter. Liv Tyler has found her function in life. Sean Bean fulfilled the character perfectly: he was annoying and then he was a dead hero. Exactly my impression from the book.

I'm not completely happy that it's a bunch of white guys opening their can of whup-ass on uppity colored folks, but there ya go. (Saruman the White indeed) The realization of the wizard's duel was interesting but a tad anticlimactic. Christopher Lee was completely convincing. Completely convincing as in "Let's not go to Chris's party because I am afraid that I may be imprisoned in a high tower by artes magickal."

The characterization of Sam was an actual improvement from the original and was put to good use in the very slight deviation that ocurred at the end. The principals were given the chance to accede to Frodo's wish to go alone instead of Frodo merely running off. He did try to run away from Sam, of course.

I love Howard Shore's score (not to be confused with Howard Shore's score to The Score, d'accord) both in the movie and on CD, yet I'm not _in_ love with it. It's like a woman that you know is beautiful, but just not quite cute enough. It's confounding. The CD is perfectly satisfying, but does not create a mindscape that is more amazing than the movie itself. That is a conundrum that I haven't solved yet.