could not have been more disappointed

Rating: Null/10 (28 December 2002)

I don't want to get onto too much of a rant about the differences between the books and the movies, but I cannot contain my disappointment after seeing TTT.
I don't have the unreasonable expectation that the movie should mirror the book completely; I certainly expected Jackson to take some liberties as he did in FOTR. In fact, I liked the differences between the book and the movie in FOTR. But I cannot fathom why he made the choices he did in TTT. Among the most grievous:

Aragorn's fall into the river and subsequent Arwen "rescue". WTF is this all about? Why is this necessary?

The villification of Faramir. Tolkein made clear the differences between Boromir and Faramir. Faramir is supposed to be a likeable character, noble as Boromir could not be. Why does PJ need to cast doubt on him? Do we really need this additional conflict? Faramir, like Galadriel, is supposed to pass the test unconditionally.

The banishment of Eomer/wussiness of Theoden/women & children at Helm's Deep so that we could have all the worried looks in Helm's Deep. I couldn't have disagreed more with PJ's entire interpretation of Rohan's involvement. Eomer, like Faramir, has his character stolen by this movie.

There's more, but these were the worst. I'm not opposed to his modifying of the story - I just don't understand what these modifications added to the movie. In my opinion, they detracted from it greatly. TTT should have been the best of the three movies. There is so much good material to work with. And it is so wasted in this movie.
I know this won't be a popular position, but needed to put it out here so that those who do agree have some companionship...