I suppose you would have preferred each film of the Trilogy extend to at least 8 hours each to remain true to every line, jot, and tittle of the books. That way nobody except the most faithful Tolkien fanatics (about a dozen people in all) would have enjoyed the films.
Personally, I believe Peter Jackson did a great job balancing the task of keeping the films somewhat faithful to the books without making them overly long and boring while rearranging events in such a way to make them fit better in a film and the mainstream movie market.
I couldn't agree more, Spiff. Here's what I wrote in another thread last week:
Is the movie a word-for-word retelling of the books? Of course not.
Is the movie the best rendering of the books into film? Absolutely! And probably will remain so for our lifetime, at least.
Are you an elitist, picayune little piss-ant if minor deviations or omissions from the books cause you to pan the film? Yes.
Two of my friends and I made an afternoon of it. We met at my place and watched FOTR on 57 inches of Sony digital widescreen projection perfection, then we went to the theater and saw T3.
Six-and-a-half hours of LOTR, and I can't wait until next Christmas to make it nine!!