Well, eta, I finally saw the film last night, and thought it an excellent movie. I was more-than-pleased with Gollum, who is one of my favorite all-time creature-characters, so I'm glad they did him justice. although I did lose some of his early dialogue until my ears adjusted to his cadence. My ear's eye envisioned his speech a bit heavier on the "S's", perhaps, but I was drawn to him onscreen with the same touching bathos I felt in the reading.
It's been ahwile since I read the trilogy, and while a lover of the work, I haven't absorbed the story and history in memory as photgraphically as many folks, but I still felt there was something missing, some hook of poigancy that got lost somehow, and I think your observations eta, point to the reason. That being said, it is a film of sweeping and epic proportions, and I'm eager and ready to follow Gollum, Sam, and Frodo for the rest of the quest!
(but a whole year, dammit!
) And if the actor who did Gollum (Anthony Skerkis I believe) doesn't at least get an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor out of this, then the modern Academy is confirmed as the political hack-job we always knew it was.
