I want Peter Jackson's head on a platter!

Rating: Null/10 (26 December 2002)

I had been waiting to see this movie for a long time, and, unlike most people, I actually read the book. Unfortunately, this is what ruined the movie.
This movie is so jacked up! It's like Peter Jackson didn't care that he was supposed to follow the book because he makes up his own story. Let me specify. (Careful! Spoilers straight ahead!)
First of all, there were no elves at the battle of Helm's Deep except for Legolas. Elrond didn't send a troop of elves to save Theoden's butt. The Rohan's saved their own butts. Cool as it looked, it just didn't happen.
Second, there was no Arwen in the second book! If she was in there, it was for such a short time, it didn't freakin' make any difference. I am so tired of Liv Tyler getting a bigger part in these movies than she was intended to! So Tolkein didn't have many women characters in his books. Get over it! Arwen shouldn't have been in the first movie as much as she was (Glorfindel saved Frodo and took him to Rivendell, remember), and she sure wasn't supposed to be in the second one like she was.
Third, Faramir didn't take Frodo to Osgilath. He took him to that waterfall place, was tempted to take the ring, didn't, gave Frodo and Sam some food, and sent them on their way. There was no big thing with the Nazgul at Osgilath! At least there wasn't in the second book.
And let's not forget that Jackson left the whole end of the book out of the movie. What happened to Sheloub, the big spider that almost killed Frodo, that led Sam to take up the ring and Frodo to get captured by Orcs. What about that? It was only a huge part of the book.
And don't even get me started on how the Ents and Merry and Pippin were handled. They're pretty much forgotten for most of the movie, even though they were a big part of the book, and Pippin has to convince the Ents to go to war. The Ents knew what was going on. They knew their forest was being destroyed. They didn't need Pippin to show them.
I'm sure there are more things in this movie that were jacked up, but these are the ones that really rub me raw. If Peter Jackson wanted to make movie adaptations of books that are so much larger than himself, he should have had enough respect to keep them the way they were meant to be, or he shouldn't have done them at all. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed the movie, but he ruined a big part of it for me. I'll bet Tolkein is spinning in his grave right now.