Why does Aragorn need to fall off a cliff and have a vision of Arwen? It does nothing for the story except give us more pictures of Arwen, Legolas, Gimli, and Eowyn crying. It doesn't increase the dramatic tension. (Oh no, Aragorn must be done for. Sadness fills the land. But wait, our hero has returned!) It also doesn't clear up whether Arwen has left or not, and it sort of leaves us not really caring. Is there a love triangle with Aragorn, Arwen and Eowyn? Perhaps, but there's too little screen time devoted to it to know. If you're going to introduce something like that, don't do it halfway.

I really didn't like the way Faramir was handled. In the book, he's much more honorable. He basically takes one look at the hobbits, knows what's going on, admits his brother was probably tempted, recognizes that he can be a better man, and lets them on their way. There was no reason to take Frodo and Sam to Gondor. It just doesn't make any sense. It seems like filler, in a movie that shouldn't need any.

I'm confused by the lack of Anduril. Fine - I can understand why you'd want to leave it out; royal provenance from weaponry is a sticky topic, and decidedly Arthurian (and Elrond as the Lady of the Lake would be a bit too reminiscent of "Priscilla"...). But if you're going to do that, then why make such a big deal out of the breaking of Narsil in the first place? I hope this has just been pushed off to the last film instead of dropped entirely. If it has, the conversations from the first film about Narsil and how Aragorn isn't Isildur and how he can make his own destiny are kind of left hanging in the wind.

The general pacing was off. The movie dragged for the first half hour, and if you can justify that much restructuring (which I think is fully justified), you should just jump right back in with Gandalf's reappearance and pick it up from there. Overall, too much cutting around, too much flashback, too many shots of miserable women and children in Helms Deep who could have been sharpening swords or bolstering the walls or something. Poor pacing is usually the kiss of death for a movie, and it says a lot that it didn't totally ruin it for me.

And the ents weren't tall enough.

But... the treatment of Gollum was amazing, and indescribable. The battle scenes were fantastic, and unlike anything I've ever seen. Short as they were, the ents were beautiful. The depth of the world hasn't lessened.

I enjoyed it, but it really more makes me look forward to the extended version, and the last chapter.