: Well, I'm a bit angry that they gave Legolas blond hair, when he was probably Sindarin and Avarin in descent (assuming Thranduil married one of the local girls). As for Mr. Shou, I've never heard of him, but you're description makes him sound good for the part.

A lot of "ordinary" people will be more likely to equate blond hair and pointed ears to the "other" earthliness of elves, which otherwise may be hard to distinguish on-screen. Robin Shou would have made an interesting Legolas (his biggest role to date has been in Mortal Kombat (the first one, not the terrible sequel) playing Lu Kang.

: And what about Gimli? They made into comic stinkin' relief! A real waste of Mister Rhys-Davies' talent, I think.

Wow! Hadn't heard that yet. Although, I do recall some scenes with Gimli and Legolas that were rather humorous, and his oh-sp famous line of, "I can not run all the way to Isengard." probably opened the door for some "director-required" levity, in an otherwise somber and at times dark story.

-Rob