Visually stunning but why mess with the original story SO much?

Rating: Null/10 (21 December 2002)

See the movie. It is beautiful. The rage of the ents is amazing. Gandalf's fight with the Balrog is awesome.But if you've read Tolkein, get ready for more and more departures from the awesome original. Faramir is no longer a wise man who passes the test that Boromir could not. He is now just a smaller version of Boromir. Elves come to the defense Helm's Deep!
Aragorn has an entire added sequence, where he is mortally wounded but Arwen sort of calls him back from the brink of death and perhaps telepathically sends a horse to help. Perhaps to remind us of his link with Arwen. However, the sequence adds nothing whatsoever to the story. It simply wastes time.
The movie stops after victory in Helm's deep and after Gollum decides to let HER have the hobbits and then get the ring for himself. I hope this means we will eventually see Shelob, etc. And I hope this also means we might see the very important face to face meeting of Gandalf and Saruman. The movie stops nearly 2/3 of the way through where the book goes. I assume this means "The Return of the King" will skimp in places and perhaps end at the moment the war of the ring ends rather than back at home for the hobbits...(?). But why not end at cirith ungol and after Gandalf and Saruman meet at Orthanc? Why not make a cliff-hanger ending like that in the books? It was successful in the serial movies of the 30's.
It is still quite a good movie visually, but it is losing some of the more important themes Tolkein originally put in the story.