I read LOTR first in around 1965 (?) and loved them so much I learned runes, re-read many times, etc.
I loathed the Aragorn in the movie. Whispering, prancing, head case. Not the least bit kingly. Even his love for Arwen did not seem authentic. I still think overall the movies were pretty good. But Vigil or whatever his name is really stuck in my craw, especially when I learned what a leftist schmuck he is.
OTOH Gimli and Theoden were excellent. Theoden could not have been better. Now he was a king!
McKellan’s Gandalf and Bernard Hill’s King Theoden rose head and shoulders above the material they were given in the film.
Theoden’s speech to the Rohirrim before the Battle of Pellenor fields was made all the better for an idea Hill pitched to Jackson months before it was filmed: as he gave the speech, riding down the line of troopers, he touches his spear to all the other Riders of the front rank. THAT was a kingly gesture. Viggo’s speech to the Men of the West didn’t come close. But I forgive him because he had such a hard act to follow.
From an interview with Bernard Hill:
“...Two main areas. One was the ‘tkatkatkatka’ [extends his arm as if holding a sword and makes the sound of the sword touching each of the Rohirrim’s weapons]. That was all my idea - which terrified me. That came out of a visit to the Weta workshop in the first week. I saw all the spears and weapons and stuff like that; and for some reason I thought of Pelennor Fields y’know, like you do [chuckles] and I thought of a kid going down the railings with a stick hmmm the king touching everybody’s spear it might be a Rohan tradition that kind of thing. I was thinking in those kind of terms; that the king gives his spirit and sword to them, that he goes into their spirit somehow through the spear, and we’re all in this together. This is it, we’re all going to die, but you’ve got the king’s spirit in you. That kind of stuff...”