Incredible, it's everything I expected and more.

Rating: 10/10 (24 December 2002)

WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS!
I think it's silly and stupid that so many people think that TTT should follow the book so closely, HELLO! ITS A MOVIE PEOPLE! If Peter Jackson were to follow those books like you wanted him too it would make them even longer, and as far as I'm concerned they're long enough, (though still a good movie). As for adding in scenes that were not in the book, Peter did this because unfortunately Tolkien did not think it would be good to have even a shred of an important female character, this would leave the female audience something sadly lacking if he didn't exagerate some of his parts a bit. As for the unneeded river scene, although I don't care for it it's not like it ruined the movie. If you guys have to be so stuck up and just look at the parts he added or deleted and think of how that doesn't follow the book you shouldn't even watch movies to begin with. A movie should not follow the book word for word, it should have something extra that the director adds to make it his own. I would be angry, actually, if he kept everything, it's not like he took out anything so major it wrecks the movie. TTT is, right now, my favorite movie of all time. Yes, I've read the books and so have all my friends and it is still our favorite movie. If you guys want to go trash it just because it didn't follow the books perfectly at least think movies need something a bit more that books don't have (and vice versa). Anyway, I just had to write this down because it's really irritating me that so many people think movies should reflect books.
As far as this movie goes I think it is 10/10. It really is a great movie, it has something for everyone. Action, romance, suspense and even a bit of comedy. I love how they captured the characters and I believe it really does follow the book nicely, as far as movies should go that is.