1. Can't wait to see the movies. It's the most exciting movie event since I first saw Star Wars some 24 years ago (yikes!). I've been reading the books since I was about that age, and have always dreamed of seeing them come to life on the silver screen.
2. It's regrettable that scenes will have to be cut or compressed due to time constraints, but I can't think of anything that I've heard of so far that Peter Jackson & Co. have gotten grieviously wrong. Of course, I've been avoiding most movie news as I'm the type who likes to go into a movie knowing as little as possible about what I'm about to see. What I read of Peter Jackson's take on the books and what the tone and look of the movies should be like before he began filming sounded very promising. It sounded like he had the right idea on how to treat the material and I was very encouraged. Everything I've seen since then has only reinforced that feeling of confidence. I think he's nailed it.
I'm not excited about Liv Tyler either, but as I've said elsewhere, we'll just have to Liv with her. At least we were spared an appearance by Ben Affleck.
3. I didn't see the trailer until Monday. There weren't a lot of fans that I was aware of in the theater -- but the trailer did receive a positive response. I thought it was great! Not too revealing... just an intriguing taste of the splendor of what we will see. Any doubts I had about the look of the actors portaying the various roles were dispelled. McKellin as Gandalf and Mortenson as Aragorn were particularly impressive. The Hobbits looked better than I expected, too.
4. I'm not exactly an academic -- but I suppose you could say I am a student of literature. I read incessantly, but I also love movies. There's a Stephen King quote which I unfortunately don't have handy, but it goes something like this: when asked by an interviewer what he thought of Hollywood ruining his books, King replied, "They didn't ruin my books. There they are, right there on the shelf." The movies will not "be" the books. They cannot be, nor should they be. They are an interpretation of the books, directed and guided by the vision of one fan (as PJ most assuredly is) and made by others who were also fans or became fans during the making. I'm sure there will be things that I think were done wrong or don't match my vision of Middle-earth, but I'm looking forward to the things that PJ & Co. got right and/or did even better than I myself could have imagined it. To answer your question more directly, perhaps, I am not offended by the thought of an adaptation. It's like covering a great song. Guns N Roses covered Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door". Same song, different renderings, both arguably great.
5. As you will find on other threads, not everyone hated the Bakshi films outright. Many agree that John Huston was wonderful as Gandalf's voice; the musical renderings of JRRT's poems seem to have gotten mostly high marks as well.
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