Random thoughts, Return of the King edition

SPOILER WARNING! Fifteen musings, after spending fifteen hours watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy:

• Am I alone in thinking that Andy Serkis was brought on-screen to play Smeagol (before becoming Gollum) for the sole purposes of getting him a Best Supporting Actor nomination?
  
• Stuart Townsend was the original choice for Aragorn? Are you kidding me?
  
• I hate to say it, but many of Legolas's stunts look like CGI effects. For a movie where they work overtime to prevent effects from looking fake, it's a letdown.
  
• On the other hand, the Army of the Dead was almost exactly what I had envisioned, except for their color (I had viewed them as more monochrome than green).
  
• I guess I'm one of those people who hears the word "ship" and thinks "grand sailing vessel"; it's sort of a Romantic thing--Whitman and de la Ville de Mirmont and all that. The "ship" at the end of Return is a boat. It is not going to inspire "legends of yore." Considering you have two bearers of the One Ring, plus the bearers of the Three, and that's all you can come up with? That's a VIP line-up, and you offer a glorified dinghy?
  
• Bag End, darn it! Sam's supposed to be at Bag End!
  
• Shelob has to be the most terrifying creature I've seen in a movie in ages.
  
• I had a hard time telling distinguishing if Howard Shore's score called for solo mezzo-soprano or solo countertenor. It could have been either--or it could have been both. It was that kind of voice.
  
• This is actually a defect in Tolkien's novel, but the battle before the Black Gate actually breaks a trilogy-wide buildup in the intensity of the battle scenes. Each one is more impressive than the last, but I don't think there's any way to top off Pelennor Fields.
  
• Gimli really does become the "Comic Relief Dwarf" (TM) in this third movie.
  
• The only change that I thought was too far away from what Tolkien originally wrote was the scenes leading up to the demise of Denethor.
  
• The more you like Tolkien's original, in fact, the more I think you'll find to kvetch about in this movie
  
• The Dawnless Day doesn't seem to dawn in the movie--perhaps it will at least get a passing reference in the extended edition.
  
• 75 minutes of extended features . . . (salivates)

But seriously, folks, in spite of the carping--y'all need to go and see this movie. It's the best I've seen this year--and all of my grumblings are only because I also like the novels so much, and was hoping to see so much more. But unless we wanted Return of the King Parts I and II, each three hours long (and really, who wouldn't?), this is the best we can hope for. If Jackson doesn't win Best Picture for this, I'll be extremely disappointed.