20/12/2002 - 11:12 p.m.

Shall I describe it to you, or shall I get you a box?

I saw The Two Towers today. I sat with my mouth hanging open in awe for most of the movie. I would notice at times that my mouth felt a little, er, dry, and I'd close it, only to realise twenty minutes later that it'd fallen open again.

When Gandalf and Eomer appeared on the crest of the hill, I sat in the theatre sobbing from pure joy and trying my hardest not to jump up, cheering and applauding like an idiot, because the audience around me was not quite as enthralled as I. I should've done it anyway.

Merry is my favourite Hobbit. I'd picked him out as a little kid as the one I liked best, but now, thanks to his speech to the Ents, he's absolutely my favourite. I have so much love and respect for Eowyn, she is the daughter of kings, and she is not to be pitied. I want to be like her.

I do not like the Eye, or the wraiths. I understand so absolutely what they mean, and what they are only portents of, they leave me cold. Just the images are enough to make me look away. This movie was deep, and gripping, and everything about the book that makes it such a toil to read was there. It was pouring out of that movie daring you to look away, though you cannot.

They got Fangorn right, and for that I am ever greatful. There was something about his eyes, which I was worried about. There was something there.

I loved the opening, it was perfect. We actually got to see how the battle with the Balrog (I know, I know, I edited this, it was Morgoth, because I knew the Balrog has a name, I just forgot what it was and put the wrong one.) went down, and it was just exactly as it should have been.

And the creature. Wow. I want to meet Andy Serkis. I want to see the face that goes behind that grovelling, twisted Gollum.

I am so glad that Shelob was put off until the third movie. I don't think I could've handled her here, it was such a, a, well, movie without hope, and to leave Frodo and Sam like that, in Mordor, with no hope... What a weight for an audience, a whole year before finding out what had happened. But there was hope in this movie, with the arrival of Gandalf came hope, to close the movie happily. Everything's going to be all right.

There are lists of things yet that I haven't gotten to. Gimil and Legolas and Faramir and Grima and Theoden and everything, so much that was done so perfectly I could go on for hours. I simply can't believe it. It was wonderful. I want to go back.