Overall I loved it, including the writing, but there were two places where I wished they had gone with Tolkien rather than colloquializing the speech:

First, the exchange between Eowyn and the WitchKing: I've always loved, "Fool! No living man may slay the Nazgul!" "No living man am I! There stands before you a woman!" -- the colloquial "I am no man!" just didn't cut it for me.

Second, Frodo at the Cracks: Another well-beloved line is the "I have come. But I do not choose now to do what I came to do." I loved the matter-of-factness of it. "Yep, struggled all that way, got here...changed my mind. Sorry, Sammy!" -- this all got shortened to "The Ring is Mine!" and Elijah looking all evil and possessed (which he did really well, don't get me wrong, but I wanted the Tolkien "changed my mind" line in there.)

Right now I'm trying to decide if I should keep packing or go see the movie...my precioussss....again. Must. Keep. Filling. Boxes....

Edited because it's been so long since I've posted I've forgotten how the ding-dang spoiler tags work.

Minas Tirith looked just right. Tolkien didn't give me many clear pictures, but Minas Tirith has been in my head for a few years, and PJ's people did a good copy of it.

Maytree, re: the first part of your white font...

I wanted to hear the whole thing:

"Begone, foul dwimmerlaik, Lord of Carrion, leave the dead in peace."

"Come not between the Nazgul and his prey, or he will not slay thee in they turn, but bear thee away to the Houses of Lamentation, where thy flesh shall be devoured and thy shrivelled mind be left naked before the Lidless Eye."

"Do what you will, but I will hinder it, if I can."

"Thou fool. No living man may hinder me."

"But no living man am I. You look upon a woman. Eowyn, Eomund's daughter. You stand between me and my lord and kin. Begone, if you be not deathless, for living or dark undead, I will smite you if you touch him."

I was a tad upset that they trunkated one of the greatest dialog exchanges ever written, but again, PJ did so much right, I can live with it.

(And yes, I may have gotten parts of it wrong, but I pulled that exchange from memory.)

Having seen the documentaries on the miniatures where you see Minas Tirith, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect - but it just took my breath away. From the camera coming up over the ridge from the bottom and just going up and up and up. Then to Gandalf riding through the streets the whole sequence was better and so much more realistic than I could have imagined.

Another thing I thought I was prepared for was the landscape. How much more beautiful could NZ look than in FotR? Once you've seen one snow capped mountain range, you've seen em all - right? Uhm. Wrong.

Unexpected sobbing moment? Sure, I cried at the reunion scene - but the harder Gandalf laughed, the harder I cried.

I *know* I was getting looks. And I don't care. Stoopid lame crowd.

Sean, I wanted the whole thing too, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I just didn't realize how thoroughly truncated the dialog in question was going to be.

As you say, it's one of those "Hey, if that's the worst I can come up with to complain about, life's pretty good," things. I think on balance PJ and the crew added more stuff I liked than left out stuff I wanted, so I feel a bit ungrateful grumbling...but still. Must. Pick. Nits. (More. Fun. Than. Packing!)

Yeah, tina, there were definitely moments when I actually gasped at the scenery. That was one of the joys of seeing FOTR and TTT on the big screen again, remembering just how incredible those mountains and valleys are. Gah. Oh, and Gandalf and Pippin riding through Minas Tirith took my breath away too.

Ah, dang, Maytree.

That's the ONE part of JRR's writing I ever liked.

I saw it last night with my brother, my sister and a friend of hers. I yielded to my sister's urging and wore the Nazgul costume I'd made for Elena's LotR Halloween party. My sister and her friend were Merry and Sam, respectively. We were the only people there in costume, but the audience seemed pretty evenly enthused. There was talking, but it was almost all of the "OH! Sam just [whatever Sam did]" which I didn't mind.

I really really enjoyed it, although I did find that I really noticed places where there will be scenes added for the EE. Still lots of fun.

A thing that made me laugh: when Arwen has the vision of Aragorn and the child, what I imagined as her thoughts was "I can't leave! I may have gotten him pregnant!"

I laughed inappropriately after Aragorn gets crowned, when he sees Legolas before he sees Arwen and it sooooo looked like *they* were the ones about to get married

Many reviewers have loved the subtlety of the crowning scene. At first I was a little sad that 1) it really meant the end of dirty stanky nummy Strider and 2) they didn't have Frodo hand Gandalf the crown.

But on afterthought, I have to agree with the reviews - a more elaborate scene in its place would have just drawn out the multiple endings things.

Any Legolas/Aragorn slash is mostly Bloom or the director's fault. He says things to him with such intimacy. And is answered back with such fondness. Boys don't do that, so much.

As for the Sam/Frodo -- hell, the text had more than the movies.

I wasn't feeling any Legolas/Gimli, or Merry/Pippin. Those came across as very het interactions, although I've been accused of wanting to slash anyone that share (un)kind words.