Tolkein traditionalists please shut the hell up before I beat you!!!

Rating: 10/10 (13 January 2003)

As a film student and a Tolkein fan I loved this movie and almost everything about it. Peter Jackson really does understand what he's doing. For all those who say that this film made too many changes from the book, this is all I have to say to you: go cry me a river. It's an adaptation for the love of God, it's not supposed to follow the story exactly.
Most of the things that were changed in this film were changed with good reason. As much as I love Tolkein and his writing, he does tend to meander with his narration to a point that I sometimes wonder if Treebeard is supposed to be the one narrating these books. Additionally, alot of information in the books is conveyed through dialogue instead of through action and visuals, which is a big no-no in film, and not a great idea in storytelling in general. Therefore, Peter Jackson created some new ideas that got the same story across only more visually. Yes, he changed alot, but all of the new stuff still accomplished the same thing as the books and still got the THEMES of the story across.
Yes, there were changes that p***ed me off. Faramir is supposed to be the good brother and that bothered me because it was a complete change of a character, not just of the story. As far as the whole Arwen thing goes, I'm not happy that they made the decision to blow up her character and all, but I like the way they did it once the decision was made. It could have been done a lot worse, with her following him into battle and trying to be a lovey dovey, turning this into another Titanic/Pearl Harbor. At least they stuck to things that actually DID happen, albeit in the appendicies.