I just don't understand.

[Imladris]

Don't hate them because they are beautiful...

I hadn't meant to imply that, because I do love the elves both book and movie (gasp) form.

Legolas became a one-note assassin

And in the book he was....what? Cardboard? That guy over there who's hair colour is in question? I've read the book many times, I don't feel aquainted with Legolas at all, except as one of the nine.

His stunts in the movie were over the top, yet I hardly think that makes him deserving of the title assasin. Legolas killed people in the book too and he did it well.

Lothlorien was too brief and too dark.

I always thought this was harkening back to the fact that the time of the elves was over as they left into the west...

Brief? The Fellowship didn't do anything in Lothlorien besides rest and the mirror scene with Frodo which I am still iffy about how it was portrayed in the movie. But, you must admit, resting and regaining strength is hardly movie material. In movie form, it's a snore fest.

We could have learned more about the elves via Legolas or Arwen as (1) we got to know these characters through the 12+ hours of the movie, and (2) PJ could have, using Gimli and Aragorn respectively, shown us why the elves were different. There were scenes that could have been cut to make time for an elf mini-micro-documentary. Just a few moments, now and then, to show how Legolas or Arwen viewed this Middle Earth.

Much as I love the elves, the story is of Frodo and the Ring and the other nine are not about them. In an already complicated story with multitudes of characters, I don't think it would have...worked...to do what you suggest...though I am wondering if you could provide an example of what you mean?