History YMMV / TheLordOfTheRings

** The music did not help. It might as well have been the best musical theme to depict pure evil ever written.

** And no mention of Tom Bombadil? He's practically the series Chuck Norris

* CharacterDerailment: Samwise. Hoo boy...

* CharacterDerailment: Denethor. Possibly excusable, since Denethor's character was developed very delicately through chapters of dialogue, and it would have been nigh impossible to portray this in the film. Still, he deserved better than being an old fool who got slapped around by Gandalf ''twice'' - to say nothing of his "exit"...
** They could have at least shown him using the Palantír, explaining just why he goes from a JerkAss into a complete nutcase halfway through the battle.
** Book fans have large issues with Aragorn's actions at the Black Gate in the Extended Edition [[spoiler: Namely beheading the diplomat Mouth of Sauron where the direct opposite point was made in the book]]. One can only imagine if the idea of Aragorn fighting ''fair form'' Sauron had actually been implemented.
** Faramir's behavior around the One Ring is the other principle bone of contention, even though it [[YourMileageMayVary arguably]] [[AdaptationDisplacement makes more internal sense]] for Faramir to have difficulties with the ring. The other characters who mostly or completely reject the ring in the book either have no real desires (hobbits, Tom Bombadil), or are powerful enough to both hold themselves off and know better (Aragorn, Gandalf, Galadriel). But still, giving into it completely and then just changing his mind because Sam has to tell him that Boromir died this way is considered by many to have been rather unnecessary.
** Legolas and Gimli get ''some'' of this as well, mainly by virtue of not being fleshed out as much as they were in the books. In the movie, Gimli is mostly just comic relief, and Legolas... looks extremely pretty. However, particularly toward the end, they do get to have alot of {{Badass}} moments in battle.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: Almost every modern fantasy copies from it to some extent or another; so much of the genre is aimed at children that by the time a reader gets to the Real Thing, they've seen it before...

** This goes back much further than the movies, too. The fact that she was a late addition (Tolkien didn't create her until the third draft) really doesn't help her any, nor does the fact that she doesn't actually ''do'' anything, and her love story with Aragorn is [[AllThereInTheManual in the appendices]]. The movies gave her Glorfindel's part because they wanted her to do something other than hang out in Rivendell and look pretty--given that all her characterization is developed in the appendix, they had to toss her something. Fortunately they did ''not'' go with their original idea, which was to send her to the freaking battle of Helm's Deep like some kind of Xena the Elven Warrior Princess. Even Liv Tyler despised that idea.

* AdaptationDecay: It completely cut out Arwen, Saruman, Legolas, Gimli, and the [[ArmyOfTheDead Dead Men of Dunharrow]]. Faramir was lucky enough to get a one shot scene with Éowyn.
** Bizarrely, Elladan and Elrohir actually make it into the film, despite having only a few speaking lines in the book. Near the end of the film, two unusually pretty men who look exactly the same can be seen behind Aragorn.
** Denethor is depicted as kooky old man, missing more than a few teeth, and gives an impression that he's not the man fought a battle of wills against Sauron and never bent to Sauron's will.
** Due to the Bakshi film being a flop, Rankin-Bass were not allowed to mention anything solely appearing in the first two books, they only got the rights to the third. Thus, for instance, the phial of Galadriel merely shows up in Sam's pocket, much to his surprise.
** A 98 minute running time (probably cut further in future TV airings as more commercials were stuck in) would hardly help in any case.

** Faramir's behavior around the One Ring is the other principle bone of contention, even though it [[YourMileageMayVary arguably]] [[AdaptationDisplacement makes more internal sense]] for Faramir to have difficulties with the ring. The other characters who mostly or completely reject the ring in the book either have no real desires (hobbits, Tom Bombadil), or are powerful enough to both hold themselves off and know better (Aragorn, Gandalf, Galadriel).
** Legolas and Gimli get some of this as well, mainly by virtue of not being fleshed out as much as they were in the books. In the movie, Gimli is mostly just comic relief, and Legolas... looks extremely pretty.

** YourMileageMayVary, of course, as just as many, if not more, find the ending to be satisfactory.
** Part of the problem comes from the omitting of the Scouring of the Shire, which averts ending fatigue in the books since the hobbits come home to find all is not over. It also doesn't help that the screen fades out in about 5 places and really looks as though the film is ending there, only for it to reappear again. Slightly different cinematography may have made this a much less common complaint.

* HoYay: Frodo and Sam. Actor {{Ian McKellen}}, who is gay, was interested in the close relationship between the two characters. He noted the attention to detail in the pair's close relationship from page to screen, such as when Sam grabs Frodo's hand after he awakens from unconsciousness. In fact, both pairs of hobbits can reasonably be called HeterosexualLifePartners. It's worth noting that Sam is the only hobbit to show interest in any specific woman in the films.

** The most glaring example has got to be Éowyn's showdown with the Witch King of Angmar. In the book it is an amazing scene with some of the best dialogue in the entire trilogy. In the movie... basically Angmar says "''No man can kill me. Die now.''" and she replies "''I am no man''". Big whoop.

** This goes back much further than the movies, too. The fact that she was a late addition (Tolkien didn't create her until the third draft) really doesn't help her any, nor does the fact that she doesn't actually ''do'' anything, and her love story with Aragorn is [[AllThereInTheManual in the appendices]]. The movies gave her Glorfindel's part because they wanted her to do something other than hang out in Rivendell and look pretty--given that all her characterization is developed in the appendix, they had to toss her something. Fortunately they did ''not'' go with their original idea, which was to send her to the freaking battle of Helm's Deep like some kind of Xena the Elven Warrior Princess.

* {{HoYay}}: Hi, meet the fandom. Read the books. Go on the Internet in general. [[WordOfGod Tolkien himself apparently stated that Sam and Frodo were not in love with each other]], and it didn't slow the fandom down a bit.

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming: During the song "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_274z9AO6Q8 Leave Tomorrow Till It Comes]]" during Frodo's dream sequence. Can't help but feel touched by the scene where the pair of hobbits on the road encounter a pair of [[DarkIsNotEvil benevolent]] [[OurOrcsAreDifferent orcs]], and the groups wave at each other with easygoing good cheer -- a delightful [[SubvertedTrope subversion]] of the typical AlwaysChaoticEvil portrayal of [[JRRTolkien Tolkien]] orcs. Since this was Frodo's dream, it says more about Frodo's own sweet heart than about the actual orcs they have encountered while awake. But this moment still works in an elegant way that even a child can easily grasp.
** And strangely, this is what [[JRRTolkien Tolkien]] would have wanted if he had more time to write. He hated the idea of an AlwaysChaoticEvil race, since it contradicted his Catholic upbringing.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Many are prone to this.