A short review, a little perspective, and a few gripes.

This being my first post at The Barrow-Downs I should say that I am not a purist fan, but a very big one. I've only made it about half way through the Silmarillion and other tales while I've read LOTR on atleast 3 occasions.<P>Enough about me. The movie, in short, was excellent. Not without it's faults (my gripes of which appear later), it certainly exceeded my expectations and raised the bar for every fantasy film yet to come (including the next 2). <P>I think for a fan the film is best viewed in this light; I have a coffee-table like book called Paintings of Middle-Earth. It contains several pieces by different artists at different stages of the story. It contains very little of the story itself, does that make it a bad book? NO, it is a companion piece, nothing more nothing less.<P>There are, however, problems. I've read through many of the posts here and tend to agree, so I won't repeat. I will add a few things, all of which center around lothlorien. <P>1) Gimli - Only 2 places that I can remember Gimli standing out in FOTR, moria and lothlorien. moria was done well, but did he even have a line in lothlorien? his love of Galadriel and the golden trees (mallorn?) played a large part (I felt) in his changing as a character. Sad to see it left out.<P>2) The mirror - Where is Sam? This leads to #3:<P>3) Gifts from Galadriel - yes I see that they have them (the cloaks atleast), and Frodo receives his... but where is Sam's seed and fertilizer (whatever it was =). As long as he has them in the end, all is well... but will anyone that hasn't read the books understand this? And Galadriels lock of hair, will it make it into the crystal? (IIRC, goning back to #1).<P>4) Trees - umm, mallorn, golden... did I miss something?<P>I understood most of the movies additions/subtractions, but # 1-3 seem to be glaring mistakes.<P>Favorite piece of the movie: Boromir. Sean Been was exceptional. I got a little misty near the end (which is unusual). Someone else here said the movie did a better job than the book relaying his conflict... it did for me as well. Though that may not be the case upon further reading. Best example I can recall is on the mountain when Frodo falls and drops the chain and ring. While he readily gives the ring back, the pain is seen inside, well done.<P>Thanks for trudging through, hopefully my meaning wasn't lost.<P>Kien