As Movies go excellent but overall not faithful to the book...

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2002)

Truly, it was one of the best movies in a long while. I enjoyed it immensely. The battle scenes were quite lengthy and full of many interesting stunts. But the movie was not faithful to the book.
I don't want to spoil anything so I'll stick with little things:like the incident at Entmoot (gathering of Ents) where they decided *not* to go to war - and then did so only once Treebeard had seen the destruction of his people. I don't mind inconsistencies but couldn't they be at least NECESSARY fabrications?
Anyway, in my mind the dialogue was a bit...melodramatic - for instance: Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn are running in pursuit of Merry and Pippin and then every so often they stop and blurt out a line (or Legolas eyes the horizon in his 'elfish' way) and then resume their breakneck pace.
So what I'm really saying is: See the movie! By itself I give it 9/10 or so but what you need to know is that when compared with the books it probably won't hold up (especially if you demand perfection)
Alone: 9/10 With Book:4/10