Generally agree, loved the movies (especially the extended editions) but:

* Helm's Deep went on way too long, it was like 45 minutes of battle

* Legolas's action scenes were a little too over the top for my taste (Oliphaunt tail slide, surfing on a shield). I'm not sure the iffy CGI helped.

* Poor Faramir

I personally think Helm's Deep was just as long as it needed to be. It's just not 45 minutes of blind, pointless battle. There is storytelling, character growth, and evolution in those 45 minutes. It's one of the most efficient and well created battle scenes in modern cinema.

As far as Legolas's action scenes, are you referring to the elephant? That one was CGI, but the scene of him sliding down the stairs on a shield was actually a practical effect done with wire work. The only CGI in that scene was the removal of the wires I believe.

Yes, Faramir's story is tragic but I think that's kind of the point of his story; isn't it?

The point of Faramir's story in the books is integrity in the face of great temptation. "But fear no more! I would not take this thing, if it lay by the highway. Not were Minas Tirith falling in ruin and I alone could save her, so, using the weapon of the Dark Lord for her good and my glory. No, I do not wish for such triumphs, Frodo son of Drogo." It's not supposed to be tragic in the book. What the GP comment was saying is "Poor Faramir, the movie took part of his integrity when they had him take Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath"

Legolas' shield stunt was over the top.

especially considering there were no elves there at all!

?

In the books the elves didn't come to support the men at Helm's Deep. The battle played a much smaller part in the books than it did the movies - probably because the middle one needed a climax.

Wait, Faramir suffered the identical fate in the novels, correct? My memory could be terrible.

In the books Faramir immediately rejected the ring and sent the Hobbits on their way - it wasn't a whole bunch of hand wringing. It radically changed his character.

IIRC, that Faramir plot was cut from the theatrical release and was only included in the extended version.

I think I sort of prefer showing him struggle with it and then make the right decision rather than just making the right decision easily. Resisting the temptation makes him more heroic.

Being tempted and resisting the ring is a already common theme in the whole book. I liked the depth they gave to Boromir in the movie, but Faramir defining characteristic, as opposed to his brother, is his immediate rejection of the ring.

There were a couple of scenes removed from the cinema version that showed his character a bit more, but that character was a huge departure from the book.

The main one was a flashback that shows his relationship with Boromir and the toxic effects of Denithor's favouritism.

The film made him look weak, violent and rash but in the books he was the polar opposite of all three.

In the theatrical release he takes them to Osgiliath, something he doesn't do at all in the books. His weird indecision was definitely in the theaters.

It did make him more human, so it's not entirely bad. In the books he, like Aragorn, is a paragon of humanity, straight up just better than the rest of us.

Tom Bombadil, I would have loved to have seen super god and his girlfriend.

Yeah but unless you've read the books, his character is a bit esoteric for the movies.

Tom Bombadil is "a bit esoteric" in the same way that a hurricane is "a bit moist."

IIRC I once read a letter from JRRT where he stated that Bombadil was a "deliberate enigma". He had no explanation for the character's apparent powers or origin. Considering the incredible amount of details and origin stories for just about every other character and race in the epos, that struck me as particularly whimsical. Sort of like an easter egg that ended up in a place that was slightly too prominent. An inordinate amount of time has been spent on the internet in debates whether Bombadil was an Elf, one of the Maiar, a human with some other item of power, one of the Valar or even even Eru Iluvatar incarnate.

That's the beautiful part about him, that I didn't get when I was younger and trying to fit him in to the model.

You have living elves that remember them originally going into the west. You have the history after they came back, including several who where there. Some know the Valar personally. You can be reasonably confident of the history. Heck, you have Maiar wandering around. And then you have Bombadil. Who is he? Nobody knows! Not the elves, not the Maiar. What does he want? To sing goofy songs. It's beautiful!

In his afterlife, JRR Tolkien lives in middle earth as Tom.

The loss of the Barrow-wights was unfortunate, and took something away from the death of the Witch-King as well.