I watched the extended editions all in a row on Saturday and I was left feeling quite empty...
I was bored ("oh, it's this scene, I'll go make some tea for us" or "how many minutes will this battle scene still last?").
And kind of sad someone like PJ made the films. It almost made me cry how he and his team have no eye for nuances at all, everything has to be big and blasting, either good or evil, and every single thing has to be explained to the viewer as if to a stupid kid. On the other hand it made me realise that however much Tolkien has been accused of writing black and white fantasy he has an amazing amount of nuances in his work (unlike some others!)
And then, I have to say I admired the film makers' eye for dramatic scenes. You can't really be cynical in the end of the Two Towers when the Rohirrim ride out in one last desperate attempt and Gandalf and Éomer appear.
But then again, Tolkien did that before them and even more impressively. When I last read LotR in July I cried my eyes out at the Pelennor fields.
PS. This thread is about the same topic:
A Sad Experience. I quite agree what I
said there 1,5 years ago.