I recieved this hilariously daft christmas greeting via email today. I don't know who created this image originally, but whoever you are, you're a genius!

I have to agree. It exceded all my expectations. The vastness of the scenery and the arial and tracking shots were simply breathtaking. It felt epic in every way. At times it was genuinely moving - unlike SW Episode 1 I actually cared for the chracters. I had a lump in my throat at the council of Elrond. Crackin' stuff - roll on next December!

Well I finally saw it yesterday afternoon, Lord of The Rings. And yes, it was a fantastic piece of Cinema. A visual feast to behold. The characterisations were considered and enjoyable though sometimes a little different to my interpretation of the book, Merry and Pippin are more comical, and Legolas was much more lethal than I imagined. Actually the elves in general were much more intersting than I expected, and this leads to puzzlement over the incredible brevity of the Lothlorien section, still Cinema seats tend only to be bearable for the first 2 hours or so, so I was getting a bit restless at this point anyway. The casting of Hugo Weaving was a little bit of a stretch, I mean he looked the part, but everytime he spoke I kept getting Matrix flashbacks. The Wizards were fantastic, particularly Gandalf, spot on in every way. Our main Hobbits Bilbo and Frodo were great too. As for the bad guys, the Orcs were beautifully grotesque, stupid and menacing, and the other evil creatures were equally well done. On the down side, I thought the Nazgul themselves were a bit lacking in menace but close enough to not break the spell. The "Fellowship of the Ring" is a big book with a lot of story, so as you can imagine the movie did seem to be advancing at breakneck speed, then stopping for a bit of character development, and then off again. I found this a little disorienting, but it did mean that most of the story got covered probably just about adequately. It probably should have been about 6 hours long, if it had been, but for the sheer discomfort of cinema seating I would have been there transfixed the whole time. My favourite scenes were the fantastic eleventy-first Birthday Party of Bilbo's (Particularly Gandalf's Fireworks) and all of the Moria segment, including the Kraken of the lake. Rivetting stuff. In short, despite a few minor shortcoming which are hardly a surprise, Peter Jackson has captured the essense of Tolkien and stamped it on celluloid, for this he should be revered perhaps even worshipped. Bravo! Encore, Encore, I await eagerly the following two installments....

Little reminder: Today is the last day for posting your coconuts before Christmas.

I've just been told the Best Programmer Joke ever! (maybe) Here it is.....

How about some Middle Earth Weaponry? Battle Orders are offering several Lord of The Rings Weapons including Sting^TM and Glamdring^TM.