Can I just say 'ouch'?

Rating: 3/10 (17 January 2007)

I have been an avid LOTR fan for almost ten years now. I love love love love the books, but I really hated this movie.
What Jackson did (and I'm surprised Phillipa or Christopher didn't call him out on it) was cut all the really important ending bits for sake of having disgustingly overblown battle sequences that made me want to kill myself. An hour is too long to be in battle, in a movie, I'm sorry. The CGI was amazing, and the deaths were good and all, but it didn't really help the story along. All it did was sit there. And we aren't even going to get into how much I hate Orlando Bloom.
The fact that the scenes in the houses of healing were cut just pisses me off. Faramire and Eowyn deserved more than a glance during Aragorn's OMG SPIFFY coronation. They were the the link between Gondor and Rohan. They were actually quite major characters, and they were totally glossed over for the sake of some Oliphants falling over. Butchery? Yes, yes it is.
And the endings. The endings weren't long enough. I know what you're thinking, "but... the ending dragged on and on with no sign of an end in sight until it actually ended", but seriously folks, don't give me that BS unless you've read the books as many times as I have (if you have, then by all means, give me that BS many people have read them more times then I have, but those people would agree with me) when Peter Jackson decided to use his "artistic" license to completely forget about half of the stuff in the books, he cheated people out of some seriously amazing story telling. The scouring of the Shire is what the whole trilogy is supposed to be about. It's about how Frodo leaves hating how much the hobbits take for granted in life, and then coming back, and helping to save them from something they have never before had the displeasure of meeting, and that is slavery. And then when they won their freedom back, they loved their heroes, and they celebrated them, and they were happy again, and they (hopefully) wouldn't take so much for granted again in the future.
Okay, I'm getting myself upset, and I'll shut up. But seriously, all this movie is for is watching people run around and stab things. Not interesting to me.