[JenB]

I know what you mean. I'm not defending things. This was a great movie but.... really, not that much happened.

[HairOfTheDog]

Could we have skipped Faramir? I can't believe I am advocating skipping things... but Faramir did not move Frodo along in the story.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

A lot happened, but most of it was psychological; they established what was happening to Frodo, what the ring was doing to him, and what was happening between Sam and Frodo and Gollum. There's a lot of dialogue and "happenings" between Frodo and Sam, that actually took place much later in the books. So I think PJ was getting that stuff down, so he would not have to do so in ROTK.