It's not the novel. Get over it!

Rating: Null/10 (6 January 2002)

Okay, Christopher Tolkien was correct.
You cannot make Lord of the Rings into a movie and remain 100% faithful to the book. You'd wind up with something utterly unwatchable if you did. Not only that, you'd have to break down each of the 3 volumes (Fellowship, Two Towers, Return of the King) into their component books (Fellowship is books 1&2, TT is books 3&4, and Return is books 5&6), or you'd be watching 16-18 hours of LOTR.
And, quite frankly, none of the individual books would be capable holding up as a self-contained movie.
While Jackson is a fan of the books, he also knew that, were he to do a literal production of the books, he'd never finish it. Nobody except a VERY hardcore section of the movie-going population would watch it. Seriously, how many people today would actually sit through the meeting with Tom Bombadil (*singsong* Tom Bombadillo!)? And while I regret the omission of the Barrow Wights (now the hobbits swords were given to them by Aragorn), it again tied into the diversionary Bombadil subplot.
Another area is the betrayal of Saruman. In the books, this happens completely in an after-the-fact narrative by Gandalf. Yet it's MIGHTILY important to the main plotline of the book. So it was expanded upon in the movie. Or would you rather Jackson just put the main plot on hold while Gandalf goes into a rambling 15-minute monologue?
What he's done is NOT give us a literal translation of the books. He's given us a movie that we can actually watch, and enjoy as something that evokes the awe and admiration we felt for the novel.
If you went, expecting a syllable for syllable translation, you're BOUND to be disappointed. If you went, expecting an adaptation of the novels, and reminding yourself that it wasn't going to be the novels, but on film, then you should have found it to be a fairly enjoyable (if slightly lengthy) film.
I went and saw it in IMAX. And I was blown away.
I give the film an 8 of 10. Mostly because I would have handled some of the initial character interactions differently.
Instances:
1: Boromir having already heard of a nameless ranger named Aragorn.
2: Gimli's rather "abrupt" introduction.
3: An explanation of Frodo's familiar relations to Merry and Pippin.
4: Gimli's interaction with Lady Galadriel.
Oh yes. And the Xenarwen thing. It irked a bit. But hey, most people who'd never read the books would have been like "Who's this bimbo?" at the end of Return of the King, since she has only a VERY small mention in Fellowship.
Things I DID like:
1: The visualization of the Shire (and Hobbiton in particular).
2: The visualization of what one sees when putting on The Ring. Especially during the scene on Weathertop.
3: The gates of Moria.
And one last thing. Do you ever think we'll see Hugo Weaving get a part where he actually LIKES humans?