Awesome film adaptation of LOTR. Reasonably faithful to books' details; very faithful to spirit of books. Definitely worth seeing, unless you absolutely hate the fantasy genre. Most definitely worth supporting whole-heartedly, if you are sick and tired of movies that you either can't take your kids to, or you can but you don't want to. (Parents out there will know what I mean!) There is NO cursing, NO sex/nudity/innuendo, NO potty jokes. The scariness/gore/violence is at an entirely appropriate level, IMHO. I took my 4 sons (ages 7-13), and plan to take them again, plus my wife. AND bought some of the action figures for Christmas. So I'm doing my part!
I actually like what they did with Arwen, even though it strayed from the books. Gave her more of an active role than Tolkien did, and yet kept it as something that Tolkien would have been able to swallow. (As opposed to making her Xena Warrior Princess, or Lara Croft, or similar idiocy.)
The hobbits were the best I've ever seen or heard in any film or radio adaptation. They aren't nearly plump enough, but they talk and behave the way I imagined hobbits behaving. Childlike and innocent, without being childish and stupid. Bilbo, Frodo, and Samwise have impressed me already; I look forward to the development of Merry and Pippin.
They wisely didn't mention anything about Galadriel and Arwen being the most beautiful females in Middle Earth. Unfortunately, I've read the books, so I kept thinking, "Yeah, Kate Blanchett is beautiful, but she's no Galadriel."
Of course, even a plain elven woman should be beautiful compared to any human woman, so it isn't fair to expect any human actress to be able to pull off Galadriel!