Peter asks for initial reactions.
The movie does not contain Aragorns reply to Eomer that I mentioned in a previous post as being essential for preserving the integrity of Tolkiens moral vision. However, they make up for it with an original speech by Sam at the end of the film that makes the same moral argument, and it is quite effectively done. I suspect this was consciously done by the writers.
The movie took more liberties with the book than it should have, in my mind, a couple for the better, but most for the worse. But on the whole it is a success.
Gollum steals the movie.
I agree that Gollum stole the show. I expected the Ents to take a large part, but they were left out of the Helms Deep battle. Doubtless, the scenes with the Ents were difficult enough to put together.
The movie was great. Theoden, King of Rohan, had a good line as well. At Helms Deep he was despondent, asking something along the lines of what can men hope to do in the face of such insatiable evil. Tolkeins answer is obvious and very Burkean. Good men must fight whether it be against Sauron or Jacobins.