The worst change in FOTR

[Walguy]

Hi, I'm new here. Wanted to find a Tolkien board to read and write opinions about the new movie, so I did a search, looked at many places, eventually came back to this one, read some more, decided it was the best board to post on, registered, and to make a long story short...well, I guess it's too late for that, isn't it.
Anyway, here I am, with my own humble views of the movie.
Just to weigh in the the Arwen issue, I have no problem with the expanded role, but the scene at the ford was atrocious.
Other problems:
1) Unnecessary or unnecessarily protracted fight scenes (Gandalf vs Saruman [who the heck dreamed THAT up???], Fellowship vs cave troll, Fellowship vs orcs). If time was so precious (pardon the word) that they had to cut so many things out, why did they turn around and waste so much of it on this stuff?
2) The screwed-up timing between Gandalf and the hobbits as the latter try to reach Rivendell. Gandalf is supposed to beat the hobbits to Weathertop by three days and leave a message. Perhaps a minor point in the grand scheme of things, but it bugged me.
3) Gwaihir the Windlord being summoned by a MOTH! Renderest thou unto me a flippin' break!
4) The way Frodo was propelled into some sort of alternate universe while wearing the ring. According to the book his vision is dimmed a bit and his hearing sharpened, but it's still the same world and he is still able to function normally. This is not at all what the movie portrayed with Frodo. Strange that Bilbo didn't seem to be affected that way when he used the ring early on.
5) There are others I could list, but I'll conclude with my absolute biggest complaint, namely that PJ and company destroyed one of my favorite moments in the entire trilogy, the moment at the council of Elrond when Frodo announces that he will bear the ring to Mordor. In the book, everyone is talked out and just kind of looking around and wondering what to do. To wit:
"No one answered. The noon-bell rang. Still no one spoke. Frodo glanced at all the faces, but they were not turned to him. All the council sat with downcast eyes, as if in deep thought. A great dread fell upon him, as if he was awaiting the pronouncement of some doom that he had long foreseen and vainly hoped might after all never be spoken. An overwhelming longing to rest and remain at peace by Bilbo's side in Rivendell filled all his heart. At last with an effort he spoke, and wondered to hear his own words, as if some other will was using his small voice.
'I will take the ring,' he said, 'though I do not know the way.'"
The inner struggle of Frodo is one of the central themes of the story, and in no moment is it more touching and more gut-wrenching than this one. Frodo knew deep down that he was the one to bear the ring, but he knew that consenting to do so would be dooming himself to unimaginable horrors. In silence, alone with his thoughts, he struggles against the urge to do the easy thing and stay with Bilbo, and the brief struggle is so intense that when his courage finally wins out, his voice knows it before he does. When I was reading LOTR for the first time, it was this moment that at last totally linked me to Frodo emotionally, and set the tone in my mind and heart for everything that followed after. Every other time I've read the trilogy I've still been deeply moved by this moment.
In the movie, Frodo announces that he will take the ring in an effort to stop a battle royal going on between the other characters. The whole essence of what the moment was intended to be was utterly destroyed. I was devastated that they couldn't bring themselves to even let that one blasted moment happen like it was supposed to.
On the whole, as a stand-alone movie it wasn't too bad, but as an adaptation of the book I thought it pretty much stunk up the joint.
Well, that's what I think. What do you think about what I think about what you think about...eh, well, you get the idea.