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> If they had to beef up Eowyn's crush on Aragorn, they ought to have closed it off.

Yep. If they hadn't added all that extra stuff with Aragorn and Arwen they could've easily done that. I didn't mind the parts that were derived from the appendix of RotK, but the extra scene with Aragorn falling over the cliff was totally unnecessary and wasted a lot of time that could've gone into other scenes that were cut out.

> And don't get me started on Faramir. Someone suggested to me that Jackson and company just don't quite understand nobility and I think they might be right...

Well, I don't mean to get you started, but now you've got my curiosity piqued, LOL! I'd be interested to hear why you say that, if it's not too dangerous to get you riled up on this issue :)

Pinging my fellow Faramir fan to put in any of the points I leave out...

In the books, Faramir is a noble guy. He's a pretty good warrior and also intelligent and somewhat sensitive. This is in contrast with Boromir, who is Mr. Musclebound, quite frankly.

The actions he took in Two Towers (the movie) are completely incompatible with his character as established in the book. He treats the hobbits badly, he hinders their errand, he does basically everything but take the Ring himself (admitedly the Extended Edition helps here a little)

And he doesn't really get the chance in RotK (movie, again) to redeem himself, being mostly-dead for most of the movie. The ride across the Pelennor was heroic and noble and stuff, but also kinda stupid. He didn't come across as much of a strategist. Just a poor abused son. (Which is also interesting and he very much needs a hug, but that's beside the point).

In the book, his scenes with Eowyn help show his character... which is then cemented at Aragorn's coronation, where he's clearly helping establish Aragorn as the rightful ruler of Gondor. Anyone think Denethor would have done that?

This is kind of hard to portray on film, admittedly. There's rather more tension if Faramir might take the ring, if he hauls them off to Osgiliath... and so the filmmakers miss their chance to have one human character (besides Aragorn) who demonstrates the strength not to take the Ring. Makes you wonder why they think so little of Men, huh?

And Faramir's driving motivation is made out to be that he wants to please his father, not that - I think the book supports - he is a noble man and guided by what he sees as his duty.

Hmm. Much more blather than I'm sure you wanted. Oh well!