Dumbing it down

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Originally Posted by Neithan

Several times Peter Jackson stumbled when trying to remember how things happened in the book as opposed to his changes. It became quite clear after he was corrected several times by the other commentators that he didn't know Tolkien's stories all that well.

Not sure if he or the other commentators knew the stories well or not; irregardless, what they ended up writing/filming was not the books. However, what makes me suspicious is that the first film was close with some parts of the story missing, the second added scenes not found in the books, and the third continued this divergence with more input from the writers than from JRRT.

I understand (somewhat) adaptation, but adding to the story was just wrong.