Good, but Jackson changed too much

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2002)

I was a huge fan of the FOTR movie adaption, and gave it 10/10. Don't get me wrong: TTT is an amazing movie! But, there is a LOT they could have done to make it better by NOT straying so far from the books. Here's my list, which some other TTT book fans have already noted (warning, spoilers)
King Theoden: In the books, he was a headstrong king, strong within, and was able to make his own choices. In the movie, he's a little whiner who needs nudging from Aragorn every 5 seconds to go to war.
Faramir: This was unacceptable. He's not the same character anymore. In the books, he was a great warrior, wise, and had a strong will. In the movie, he's more rash, impatient and weak willed then Boromir was. What the hell happened?
Gandalf: Well, not much to say, seeing as how one of the most imposrtant characters of the book is maybe in the movie for 15 minutes. We don't see at all how he's changed from Grey to White.
The whole love thing with Aragorn and Arwen: Ok, we get the friggin point. They love each other, but she has to make a sacrificie. Elrond doesn't want her to go with him. After a whole 30 minutes of watching that, I was nearly asleep.
And what about the 6 chapters that they kind of skipped? Don't I remember something about a spider named Shelob in this book? And about my favourite chapter in the book, where Gandalf and Theoden exchange words with Saruman? I mean, they really could have taken out the unnecessary scenes (Osgilath, Arwen) and made room for these important ones. How do they expect to fit all in Return of the King? And since when does Saruman work for Sauron? Isn't he supposed to be a double traitor? It gives him more depth. He was one of my favourite characters in the book, because of his thirst for power, but now he's just a servant to another power.
And now for the good. Gollum was great! Andy Serkis pulled off an amazing job. Exactly how I imagined him. It gives you the right affect, as you end up pitying him. The Ents were great. My favourite scene in the movie would have to be them attacking Isengard. I just hated how Pippin had to trick Treebeard into going to war. How the hell would one of the oldest beings of the land get tricked by a teenage hobbit? The battle of Helm's Deep was well done, with all the details I remember from the book being there, and the few that were added were good. Excellent job and excitement. Elijah Wood and Sean Astin both did amazing jobs as Frodo and Sam. Frodo was great at showing how the ring was taking over him, and Sam is showing how he's maturing.
In total, a very good movie (hell, I'm sseeing it again in 2 days) but there was much they could work on and add and delete.
8/10