Good Changes

[mhagain]

It's a different medium, and the most effective change to my mind was the rearrangement of certain scenes and critical items of dialog to suit the flow of a movie better. The "many that live deserve death" lines, for example: perfectly placed in the book, but also perfectly placed in the movie.

Removing all of the unnecessary Hobbit-like unconnected "adventures" at the start was the Right Thing, otherwise movie goers would have ended up being fairly bemused at what the thing was supposed to be about, anyway.

Having Merry and Pippin incite the Ents to go to war was a fantastic idea too. As a purely personal opinion, I found the build-up weak, but the actual delivery of the coup-de-grace was wonderful, and more than made up.

Replacing Glorfindel with Arwen... when you think about it, it makes sense, otherwise you have a situation where a Major Dude comes on and does Big Stuff, then totally vanishes. Bashki probably felt the same when he put in Legolas instead.

Also, the scene with Elrond in the tent at Dunharrow - WOW!

[Holbytlass]

Frodo is stabbed on Weathertop, in the movie there is a more frantic air. We see the rapid decline of Frodo and the arrival of Arwen and the fast paced action of the chase.

I think this was a better choice movie-wise and even prefer it to the book *ducks head* because in the book they were a couple of weeks still from Rivendell and with all the traveling and singing (I was disappointed not to see Sam do his oliphaunt poem, though) Frodo's injury didn't seem as life-threatening as it was. In the book, Gandalf says that they were mere hours from Frodo being beyond aid and turning to a wraith himself. It didn't seem so and was hard to really get the gravity of the situation because of the singing and lightheartedness of Frodo in the book.

The movie version really hit home how bad the situation was for Frodo. It left no doubt of the severity. And I believed that it was a close call to saving him.

[Neurion]

Honestly, off the top of my head, I can't think of any good changes, but I think Beleg summed it up quite well in saying that changes are more neccesary than good, and I would here make a distinction between actual changes to the story (Denethor being stripped of any sympathetic appeal or nobility) and additions to the plot that expanded on things not necessarily touched on in the books, such as, say, Merry and Pippin's clowning at Bilbo's birthday party, things that could have happened that the books don't specifically tell us didn't happen.

[ArathorofBarahir]

Some of my favorite changes are the following:

1. Pippin singing to Denethor, that absolutely sent chills down my spine.

2. I remember reading a long time ago that someone was complaining about the use of plate armor in the movie wasn't accurate because Tolkien had never intended for Middle Earth to be a medieval world. Oh well I don't remember the specifics, but I absolutely loved the way PJ and Weta and whoever else did the armor because it was AMAZING!

3. I enjoyed Aragorn' style of fighting. I know he was the heir to the throne of Gondor but I didn't like reading about how noble he was. The gritty fighting style in the movie made him so much more appealing and way cooler.

That's all I can think of for now, if I think of more, I'll post them.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

This was just something they threw in for the fans, I think, but I appreciated the change whereby Frodo leaves Middle-earth four years after the events of the story, rather than two. This way, when Sam comes back home, he has not one but two kids, Elanor and Frodo. And little Frodo-lad (to my eyes) resembles the Ringbearer. There wasn't really any need to make this change, but as a fan and knowing that little guy's name, I appreciated it.

[The Might]

I always thought that the Witch-king looks much more frightening in the movie then he is described in the book. I saw the ROTK cartoons where the WK is portrayed just like in the book, with a crown on his head and nothing to see between his neck and the crown except two red eyes. The helmet he received in the movies looks much better to me.

And of course, Pippin lighting the beacons is fantastic. And there's something else about this scene I liked. Now in the movie there are pretty clearly more then 7 beacons in total, and their position is not like in the book. But I liked that...it as nicer to see them on the top of of snowy mountains then on some smaller hills covered in forests.