Eowyn If I were a character in The Lord of the Rings, I would be Eowyn, Woman of Rohan, niece of King Theoden and sister of Eomer. In the movie, I am played by Miranda Otto. Who would you be? Zovakware Lord of the Rings Test with Perseus Web Survey Software

Well, of course I am.
[Via Bill McCabe.]

Return of the King.

Saw it twice today, back to back. Despite my misgivings (and despite living up--or rather, down--to a handful of those misgivings), I'd have to say it holds up admirably well. If I can spend 7 hours in a theater and still be ready to see it again, it's a damn good movie.

That said, there are minor peeves, most of which I think will be straightened out by the expanded edition. Worst mischaracterization: Denethor. Biggest unintentional laugh: tie--Sam and Frodo on Mt. Doom, and Denethor's final moment on screen (there will be more discussion of this last point after more people have seen it.) Best one-liners: Gimli. Best farewell speech: Theoden. Best defiance of the laws of physics that govern mere mortals: Legolas, for the third time. (The cave troll in Fellowship, the flying wrong-sided horse mount in Towers, and...well. You'll know it when you see it, if you haven't already read about it.) Biggest threat to take over every blessed key moment of the plot: Gandalf (and here I thought ubiquity was reserved for God hisself.)

Three musical performances, only one of which I endured without squirming (after you've seen it feel free to guess which.) At least five possible points at which they could have ended the movie (the endings do drag on a bit.) One scene that plays like a curtain call. Good stuff.

For all my bitter fellow Gen-Xers.

And I'm talking about those of us on the leading edge of Gen-X, at that. Via the ever-vigilant Andrea Harris, an apparently new site to keep an eye on: Boomer Deathwatch (soon to relocate to www.boomerdeathwatch.com), a gleefully mean-spirited site about the rat-in-the-snake generation sopping up all the gravy.

End of the whole LOTR thing.

No point in finishing the book when he's not following the book. [Spoiler link courtesy of Angela.]

Thank God he's not filming Beowulf. Here's hoping he never gets a shot at filming The Hobbit.

LOTR "Race the Boxoffice" update:

Looks like I'm going to have to concede defeat. Just to the stairs of Cirith Ungol, about 50 pages shy of the end of the 4th book, and I don't see how I can finish all of "Return of the King" tonight. I'll take a stab at it, though my pre-ROTK time might be better served watching the extended Towers video than reading a text I suspect is in peril of being adapted in somewhat ham-handed fashion. Sounds like I'm pre-bashing, eh? Not really. I'm looking forward to the Paths of the Dead and Pelennor Fields, at least, and though the clip I saw of Pippin with the Palantir could best be described as devouring the scenery, I have to keep in mind that I saw that clip deprived of dramatic context. Anyway, it's not like I can pretend I'm not geeked about the whole thing, I just want to be prepared in case Arwen shows up with a sword somewhere.

Best photoshop of Hussein so far.

Steve H. at Little Tiny Lies wins the prize. (I'd post the picture itself, but I'm not sure how he'd feel about that, and he's a lawyer, after all.)

LOTR "Race the Boxoffice" update:

End of book III, switching back to Sam and Frodo and the Taming of Smeagol. So engrossed I didn't know about Hussein until I signed on to AOL this afternoon. Huzzah!