There is quite a debate about Jackson's interpretation of LOTR. He cut some very key scenes, such as The Scouring of the Shire, moving the death of Saruman back a whole book, and totally reinterpreted main characters such as Elrond (what a mean *******), Aragorn ("Let's hunt some Orc!" Gimme a break, what a stupid line), Faramir (a pathetic wannabe in the film, as opposed to the last of the noble line of Westernesse in Gondor), and Gimli (never meant to be the comic relief of the book).
LOTR would have received a better treatment if it had been serialized, like George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, with the upcoming HBO series "A Game of Thrones". A series gives the time and the room that epics need, but you lose the big screen, which epics also need. The charge of the Riders of Rohan would not have been the same. For Jackson to have done it right, he needed four, possibly five films. He could have followed the books and broken it up into six shorter movies, but the studios would have hated that.
An animated film was tried for LOTR. It was a disaster, and they never even finished the story. It is a miracle that the piece of junk was ever released.
My hope is that one day, an ambitious director will want to film "JRRT's The Lord of the Rings", starting with the Hobbit, and working through to Frodo's departure from Middle Earth, that is a faithful interpretation of the original book. Not animated, but with real actors.
