I’m surprised no one else said this yet: Faramir was just not how I pictured him or how I perceived him on reading the books. When we first meet him, he seems kind of cold, nasty, and harsh, so I didn’t build the sympathy for him that I had in the books. Then, his hooking up with Eowyn was cut, which I liked and thought was important.
I second the objections to Gimli as a comic character.
My only problem with Arwen was the whole contrived “her fate is tied to the fate of the Ring.” Whaaaaa? No it wasn’t, not anymore than anyone else’s fate was tied to the fate of the Ring. Way to try to put her in imaginary danger, as if Aragorn needed more of a reason to win that war.
That said, I loved the trilogy and think it’s a masterpiece.
Plus it was already done in Titanic once upon a time ago.
The fact that no one is seen to pay the price for their involvement in the War of the Ring. Eowyn and Merry kill the W.K. and then…they’re fine. Faramir is dying and then…he’s fine. Frodo carries the ring, is stabbed by the W.K., is stung by Shelob, has his finger bitten off and then…he’s having a beer with the boys. Sure, he takes the boat later, but we are hardly shown the pain that he feels as aftermath from the quest and the injuries. Dang it, that’s a major part of the point.
I just recently read TT, and now I’m retroactively kind of bummed about how they treated Faramir. He’s so cool in the book!
I don’t mind Elves at Helm’s Deep so much, but I hate the line that what’s his face gives when they get there:
“An alliance once existed between elves and men. We come to honor that alliance.”
Ooookay.
And, you know, Arwen. Her scenes are totally boring. The fact that practically everything she does happens in slow motion doesn’t help.
Worst parts:
Gimli commic relief-- it just seemed forced.
Arwen/Aragorn whispering all the time. Makes it much too mushy.
Denethor’s 1-D character. Taking the palantir part out made him an uninteresting character, whereas he’s quite the opposite in the book.
The Denethor/Faramir/Boromir scenes in TTT EE should have been fit into the theatrical edition somehow. If you didn’t read the book, you really can’t understand the Gondor story-line very well.
The 1920s-style-death-ray Gandalf/Sauruman battle.
Things others don’t like that I was fine with:
Elves at Helms Deep. I liked that a lot.
Gollum’s dual personality. I thought it was a good way to handle Gollum/Smeagol cinematicallly.
Denethor’s flaming leap. Way cool!