[The Only Real Estel]

I found the vicious ravaging suffered by Faramir to be highly off-putting. The sequence going to Osgiliath was particularly egregious

True, but the EE helped to salvage a lot of his character. Not that I'm excusing the 'real' movie Faramir, though.

Hang on a second, PJ isn't doing The Hobbit anymore??

Just a matter of opinion, don't worry.

Tuor I completely forgot about the Gandalf beating up Denethor moments. Oh jeez, I have to agree that was more dissapointing then basically sticking Eomer behind a pole in the movies. Not only did Gandalf break rules by knocking around the Steward, but also, when Gandalf busted in with Shadowfax on Denethor burning himself, horses weren't allowed there.

I didn't especially like Gandalf beating Denethor either, although PJ's considerably-less noble-&-more wimpy Denethor deserved the beating.
But Gandalf riding a horse in there against the rules doesn't bother me nearly as much. Since the rule never even came close to being touched upon, I don't mind PJ having Shadowfax in there. I did mind the way that Gandalf seemed to kill Denethor, knocking him back onto the fire. But the horse rule seemed like a rather small nuance to me.

PJ made it seem without elves, the men at helm's deep would have lost, and without the dead army the men of Minas Tirith would have lost

Well, according to PJ's version it would've been. A few hundred men (& presumably no outstanding archers among them, other than Aragorn & Legolas) wouldn't lhave asted nearly long enough for Eomer/Gandalf to come to the rescue of anything but rubble & smoke.


On the Dead Army: It did seem to me that they pretty much saved the day, regardless of the few Oliphaunts that the Rohirrim took down towards the arrival of the Army, they were still getting whipped pretty badly. But then the Dead Army swooped down & easily wiped out everything in its path...I wish PJ would've stuck with the dead only helping capture the ships, but I guess he thought he needed a way to wrap up the 1st battle ultra-fast.