Okay, I saw it today and although I liked it almost as much as I liked the first one, some twists really made me feel angry at Peter Jackson. As Tranquillian already covered most of them, I'm gonna quote his post here:
Originally posted by Tranquillian
*Frodo and Sam in Osgiliath
This doesn't make sense because Sauron will know where the ring is. He would then use all his might and troops to reclaim the ring. The reason for fighting the battle outside the black gates in ROTK was to buy Sam and Frodo some time and make Saurons eye look anywhere but on his own lands. The reason Aragorn looks in the palantir is also to confuse Sauron so that he loses his focus on where the ring might be. Basically: the idea of Frodo and Sam taking the ring to Mordor on their own is that the only chance of destroying the ring is by using stealth to get into Mordor. When Frodo shows the ring to the Nazgul in Osgiliath he does the worst thing possible: tells Sauron where the ring is.
Agreed, it was unnecessary. Still, the "explanation" for the ring-showing might be: It was so obvious, that perhaps Sauron and the Nazgul think it was just a fake, some lesser ring (of power, of course, otherwise the Nazgul wouldn't have noticed it at all) used as a ruse to draw his attention from where the real One Ring might be. I know, a bad explanation, but otherwise the Nazgul would really haunt the area around Osgiliath and would not let anyone with a ring go anywhere - and the story would end pretty soon.
*Aragorn's faked death
The whole warg scene is redundant and badly done. Peter Jackson seems to like to fake death's of persons in this movie. I also disliked the special effects on the wargs.
Yes, unnecessary, boring and stupid. One of the biggest mistakes in the film.
*Gimli
In the movie nearly every line Gimli says is a joke. Sure, he had some good lines in the books, but why use him just as comic relief, and worst of all, in the heat of battle.
I had no problems with Gimli's speech, not even during the battle (he was rather lighthearted during the battle in the book as well). The thing that annoyed the hell out of me in the battle, was how superior our main characters were: the idea of tossing a dwarf in the middle of an orc-horde to disrupt the battering of a gate is idiotic.
*Theoden possessed?
I don't like how the exorcism was portrayed in the film, but I suppose there was no better way to do it. I think I will grow to like this scene.
I liked it; nothing too annoying here.
*Faramir evil?
Faramir isn't like he was in the books. He comes across as even more "evil" than Boromir even if the ring doesn't have a grip on him. There is simply no reason for changing the story so that he sends the hobbits to Osgiliath. It would have been better to let them go like in the book (thus also removing the Nazgul encounter).
Like Ormir, I don't mind having Faramir as a bit more grim character, but I agree the whole Osgiliath-scene was unnecessary.
*Ent's decision
The ent's decide NOT to attack Isengard at first? There is simply no good reason to change this part of the story. You could easily have stuck to the original story and not made the film longer or more complicated.
Unreasonable, yes. However, this was such a small thing that it didn't bother me at all. The Ents were done very interestingly and I expect to see more of them in the extended edition.
*Theoden
Theoden is portrayed more like a stubborn coward than he was in the books.
Umm, I didn't notice. I liked him quite a lot.
*Elrond
Why is Elrond so whiny and why does he oppose Aragorn and Arwens decision to stay with him? Why create this extra and unecessary drama?
Right, why!? This might have something to do with my imminent hatred for Arwen, but I think they really managed to ruin the character of Elrond in a few seconds here. He is only a half-elf himself, for f*ck's sake!
*Elves at helm's deep
Totally unnecessary imho. I even laughed when Haldir died. And why did they say there where only 300 men at Helm's deep in the movie when there where far more in the book. And why did only 8 people ride out of the Hornburg? And why didn't the huorns slaughter the remaining orcs?
And where where the wild men that should have been in the battle? And why have an orc running with the olympic torch causing me to laugh?
Yep, the elf-thing was something really stupid - suddenly the whole atmosphere of "we are here alone and none will help us" disappeared, even though it should have stayed there until Gandalf an Eomer came. The mention of the 300 men could have meant just the real warriors, discounting those who would not have been armed during peace-time.
I think that covers up all the biggest "errors" I disliked in the movie. I liked many things a lot: the fell beasts the Nazgul were riding were great, the rohirrim were portrayed well, the opening scene with Gandalf fighting the Balrog wasn't even nearly as bad as I had expected, Gollum was great, the black gate was excellent and the fact that there were men marching (and not just orcs) was good. And this time I enjoyed the music much more.
-Villain
