This scene is one of my faves 
and caught me quite by surprise when first viewing. Sure, the second time, the rock looks really fake…but it’s hard for me to picture how else they could have conveyed the concept of *really *good camouflage.
(although whenever I see this scene, I can’t help but think of the equivalent passage in Bored of the Rings…how the elves gave them gifts of magical cloaks, that blended in with any background: whether it was green grass, green rocks, or green sky.)
The best I can do for the term I wanted to use is a phrase: malevolent appetite. It’s not perfect, but it’ll have to do. I came up with it last night. It doesn’t have the undertone of debauched and twisted affection, but what the hell.
Voracious isn’t bad. I just can’t seem to capture the persona of Denethor in that Pippin scene. It’s almost Lear-like.
It also subtly establishes Boromir’s badass credentials - he’s obviously fought cave trolls before.
Dislikes first; My big one is Faramir not being a paragon of honour. I get that the “journey” is more interesting, but couldn’t it have been shown in the past or something? As it was, the actor certainly got the melancholy right, but either due to the writing or him I just didn’t get the sense that here’s a great, honourable guy.
Little Saruman and no Scouring of the Shire. Practically no Denethor; he’s just nuts, we don’t get to see him or know of his former nobility.
Sam not immediately giving the ring back to Frodo. I don’t recall whether that’s in the book or not; it’s more a case of Sam looking more constipated than conflicted in that scene. But Frodo putting the ring back on, on a bare, gaunt chest, is a great visual.
Likes: I like the bit where the oliphaunts are first charging into battle, and everyone’s scared by these enormous creatures, and it cuts to Theoden also mentally crapping himself. The actor portrays it so well you can see his thoughts just from his face; We’re entirely screwed, changing to determination and basically saying to hell with that as he rallies his men again for what he can see probably won’t help, but he’s damn well going to try. I generally wasn’t all that bothered by Theoden but that one bit was great.
Pippin and Merry was great. I entirely believed their story from essentially big kids to (at least partially) serious, less carefree characters.
Boromir was fantastic. I hadn’t thought much of Sean Bean until these films.
Lots and lots of the visual parts. I don’t have any visual problems with it, really.
Among my big irks with the films there’s one (literally) tiny that bugs me every time I think of it. At Aragorn’s coronation, Arwen arrives carrying a stake with a white, lacy, pointed, next to translucent thing that obscures her face until she moves it. and I didn’t think more of it until I got the extended edition for Christmas the next year. Then I spotted that it was embroidered with a white tree, and it struck me that holy hell, this was supposed to be the banner with Gondor’s white tree and seven shining stars that she sewed for him. It’s probably supposed to be a nod to the book nerds, but it looks much more like something you might hang in a ground-floor bathroom window to preserve modesty and let in light than a royal banner.
Also, yay, the first Tolkien thread since I delurked. I’ve been a Tolkien geek since I was nine, so expect me around.
Aiya! Vifslan, utúlie’n aurë! Elen sila lumenn’ omentielvo. 
Quite a bit of the problems with the character are remedied in the EE’s. But not completely; upthread someone criticized Faramir for not calling off his goons when they were beating and kicking Gollum, and that would have been a perfect opportunity for him to “show his quality”, to a certain extent.
Oh, that wasn’t Faramir. That was Denethor’s third son, who happened to have the same name as the man Eowyn married. Kinda of like Larry, Darryl, and Darryl.
Aiya Quadgop! Mae govannen.
(Is Mercotan the long forgotten Quenya word for loremaster, by the way?)
My biggest pet peeve is in the scene where Galadriel invites Frodo to look into the mirror.
Frodo: What will I see?
Galadriel: Even the wisest cannot tell. For the mirror…shows many things.
Galadriel: *…things that were… things that are… and some things… that have not yet come to pass.
*
that last line always grates on my ears, because a parallel structure is set up for the verb “be” - “were/are/…” and then it’s wrecked by “have not yet come to pass”.
Every time I watch that scene I always expect it to be things that were/things that are/and some things that will be.
Now, see, I like that line because of the switch up. But then Galadriel goes all Electric Company, including the hair and that’s the end of that.
One thing I did like: the cape clips in the shape of the leaves of Lothlorien. They were a pretty enamel trinket. I cannot say the same for Arwen’s taste in bling. If anything ever had to shatter, thank god it was that thing. And her head-dress at the coronation just made her into a JOB rolling paper girl to me (well, an Alfonse Mucha poster, anyway). Here is one, not quite the one I want, but it works:
CouldbeArwenwithredhair
I like art nouveau, but still.
Try again: Arwen?
No idea. Have to go get my son. Will try to link later. Sorry!
I like that switch, too. It’s supposed to be slightly jarring.
Heh, I like Galadriel’s “electric company” moment. Her awful “were/are” line is more than redeemed by
In the place of a Dark Lord you would have a Queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the Morn! Treacherous as the Seas! Stronger than the foundations of the Earth! All shall love me and despair!
Makes sense, really. The “were/are” garbage line isn’t in the book, but the “All shall love me and despair” is a decent paraphrase of what Tolkein wrote in that scene
I alternate between rolling my eyes and laughing at her. Chill, dude… 
(I do like her lines, though).
And this thread has gotten to me: I am going to watch MY version of LOTR tonight. This involves the EEs, much skipping of storylines that bore me on screen and usually popcorn. Envy me!
Trying Arwen as an ad poster again.
It irks the crud out of me every darned time: the Hobbits’ foot fur. In the movie, it’s some sort of ratty peat moss. It’s supposed to be “curly, like the hair on their heads.”
I like it:
They have become friends, after starting out with “never trust a dwarf!”
Plus Cate sells the “I am diminished” aspect right after she comes down off her high, and loses her cool.
Well, I managed to make it through Fellowship. Irks and pleases have changed a bit.
I now like again the scene where Frodo turns to Aragorn and his grief and despair can be seen. It hit me again.
Irk-the Nazgul are supposed to be maleficent beings. So, what’s with the stab the feather pillows, and then pull back the covers bit? And if they could sniff the hobbits out in that hotel room, why not another hotel room?
Little touches make the EEs so much better. The witnessing of the elves going to the Grey Havens is nice.
Irks-who ARE these people at the council in Rivendell? And you never see stray elves wandering about in Rivendell, except for one elf on a horse as the scene opens.
Gorgeous sets, though. Watching again, I am struck by how much the elven worlds are done in art nouveau style. Sinuous tracery in their sculpture and wood; their clothing is lush and sumptuous as well. Wonderful.
Celeborn redeems his hacking of the line “where is Gandalf?” by his expository bit with Aragorn at the water’s edge.
Hate the Galadriel line of “that fate is yet before her.”
Still hate the “do you remember when we first met?” line.
I may or may not watch TT/EE tomorrow. Depends on how lazy I feel.
Irk: Eomer’s little brigade seems to be an inconsistent size. When he first meets Aragorn et. al., it’s apparent there are maybe 30 horses and riders. But at Helm’s Deep, he’s got, what, 500? 1000? I don’t remember how this is treated in the book, but in the movie, they made it seem like Gandalf was going out to collect Eomer and his men – not round up every able-bodied rider in Rohan. If that gigantic cavalry battalion was with Eomer all along, why didn’t we see more of it at the first meeting with Aragorn’s crew? (I’ll tell you why: because horses are expensive and difficult to film, so PJ tried to pull it off with camera tricks that DIDN’T WORK!)
Irk: Just an editing goof, but during Agent Smith’s “He is mortal, and you are immortal” speech to Arwen, we see a Aragorn’s old dead body lying on a stone slab with a veiled Arwen mourning him. As the camera zooms out, you can see Aragorn’s hands fumbling around on the hilt of the sword. THIS DRIVES ME CRAZY AND I DON’T KNOW WHY!
Please: I don’t care if it’s non-canonical or cheesy or completely stupid. I can’t help but give a little internal “Fuck yeah!” when Legolas kills the Oliphaunt.
Please: The way they make Gimli short. Somehow, it works better than all the camera tricks used to make the hobbits short. Seeing Rhys-Davies out of context completely blows my mind: how could he possibly be anything but 4 feet tall? (Dude’s actually taller than Viggo!)
Please: I’d reiterate my gratitude for leaving out Tom Bombadil. He’s a puzzling little presence in the books, and I understand that he’s woven into other parts of the canon much to the delight of hardcore Tolkien fans. Thank you PJ for leaving out the baggage!
For what it’s worth the “Goofs” section on IMDB claims it is Arwen’s fingers you see moving on the sword, not Aragorn’s. I have never looked closely myself.
Re: the changing size of Eomer’s band of followers, in the books Eomer’s band was originally only a few dozen, Gandalf did in fact gather up many scattered Rohirrim for the rescue of Helm’s Deep (in the book Eomer and his men weren’t among them, they were inside Helm’s Deep with the others). Either way the movie didn’t bother explaining where the 970 or so extra mounted knights came from.
