Hawklore, agree with you on Gimli's line there.
I saw it yesterday at the 2:30 PM showing. I pulled two of my kids out of school early to catch a matinee, qualifying me for "coolest dad of the year" award. I enjoyed it immensely, and was glad the movie didn't end with the royal wedding, but instead returned to Hobbiton. While I'm sad they didn't include the "scouring of the Shire," I understand Jackson's reasons for leaving it out. While I too raised an eyebrow when Elrond made his "Arwen's dying" remark, I could overlook it since the rest of the movie was so dang enjoyable. Since they chose to write Arwen more fully into the story (what's a cinematic epic without a love interest), I didn't mind the whole bit about the three-way struggle between Aragorn, Arwen, and Elrond. However, if I was writing the script, I'd have just had Elrond tell Aragorn that Arwen chose after all to abandon an imortal life for him, and that he must accept his birthright for her sake, as well as for humanity's. That would have given Aragorn's charactor plenty enough motivation to "become who you were born to be", without all that nonsense about Arwen's fate being tied literally to the one ring's.
All in all, two thumbs waaaaay up:aok.
