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I love that scene in Osgiliath.
I mean, it's strange. We're told Osgiliath shall be re-populated and that it was Faramir who lost it (we're not told Osgiliath already was a ruin before, so Faramir's failure is even more grave), Boromir's and Faramir's dream is omitted and we get the first glimpse of what is supposed to be Denethor. We are all supposed to hate this scene!
Yet...
I think it's the atmosphere that more than saves it. There's a certain melancholy, a nostalgic rememberance of a time when life was better in Gondor, which is brilliantly caught. For the only time we see Boromir and Faramir together, and all this inside a flashback of Faramir who was just told that his brother is no more.
By the way, I don't think the dream would have worked on screen, so I'm not mad about its omission at all.
The mauling of Gollum is hard to watch indeed. As we have just been told that looking upon, not to mention fishing within, the pool bears the penalty of death, it appears to me that Faramir lets his men compensate for not being allowed to execute the poor creature. Maybe Jackson thought this would be realistic, to me it is quite un-Tolkien. In the end the only purpose is to switch the simplified Gollum back on stinker.
Concerning the effects. When Frodo, Sam and Gollum look at the Black Gate and at the Oliphaunt, you can see they're really in front a green screen as well.
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