[Bear_in_RoseBear]

I know what you mean about hearing the HH regulars in my head during the movie. I kept thinking of how folks here would react to certain scenes...

Gimli's short little legs trying so hard to keep up... swish! swish! swish! go his snowpants...

Haldir's reaction to Aragorn's hug... "Don't touch the hair!"

Seeing the movies all together at the Moot is going to be very, very interesting....

[JenB]

I should not be here. I should be sleeping. But WOW! I cannot believe that movie.

Short run down, I'll write something longer tomorrow. It was, IMO, better than the first. The action was faster and there were no "nuclear Galadriel" scenes that I hated on first glance.

Helm's Deep was incredible. I loved the bits leading up to it; scenes of the army moving in, arming the boys, Aragorn and Theoden donning armor. The battle itself - was that really 45 minutes? No way.

Elves. How cool. There they are, arriving to fight a battle that's not their own, to give their immortal lives for mortals. Wow. I almost cried when Haldir died.

Aragorn has competition! Faramir is lovely to look on, and the changes to his character weren't too horrible. I want to write more about that later. Basically I think changing two things would have made him better.

The final charge of Gandalf and Eomer was incredible.

The things I didn't quite like; the Ents didn't look right, and Gollum's face was not what I had pictured. Also I'm sorry they didn't keep the almost-repentance scene, where he sees Frodo sleeping and is about to repent, I think, when Sam wakes up. But maybe that will be in the next one.

Also, was that or was that not a three-hour essay on the premise that there are things worth fighting for, and that those things must therefore be fought for?