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In UT, the battle at the Gladden Fields is, of course, far more protracted, with some attack and maneuver on both sides. In fact, Isildur repents of his pride in keeping the Ring and leaves when he knows the battle is lost to "go to the Keepers of the Three" and give the Ring to them (though I think we can all predict how that might have turned out eventually).
The battle does not take place next to the river; Isildur has a short journey to make before he reaches its banks. "He stood for a while, alone and in despair. Then in haste he cast off all his armour and weapons, save a short sword at his belt, and plunged into the water." In fact, his story is rather moving, for the shadow is lifted from him when he loses the Ring.
Of course there is no room for all this activity and subtlety in the films. It seems quite clear that he's still armored in the shot where the Ring slips from his finger and he reaches for it.
Reg -- I can understand your complaint about the Prologue and sympathize with it. I'm torn. I agree that giving all this exposition about the Ring and its nature right up front spoils a chance for mystery and suspense. On the other hand, we've got to get to the point pretty quickly where we establish Sauron as the enemy and Bilbo's ring as the Ring.
If we've read The Hobbit, we've had time to get used to Bilbo's ring as remarkable but not all that important, and so the early chapters of LotR -- and in particular the scene in Bag End with Gandalf urging Bilbo to give up the Ring -- are suspenseful and surprising. But here in FotR the movie, we don't have the luxury of having had the Ring established for us before, or the time to do it now.
In the end, I think a prologue was necessary, even if it is a wee bit clunky to jam in so much exposition right up front.
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