Ah yes, the elves... for those of you who haven't read the book, they are right, they weren't at Helm's Deep. I took this as just some artistic license that PJ took, and it didn't bother me... there were a few changes, but I thought he stayed true to most of the character and spirit of the book. I guess he put the elves there to show that the old alliances of free peoples of Middle Earth were coming together again, so I was OK with it.. I noticed a few other things too, but attributed it to the difficulty of translating a 400 pg book into a 3 hour movie... wasn't really looking for a literal every-detail-included movie... I think that would have been too much for the big screen!
What DID bug me was that they had to kill off Haldir, one of my favorite characters, in the movie! Probably a disappointment only surpassed when I found out that Craig Parker, the cute Kiwi who plays him, is quite openly gay, hehe. <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Guess you can't win 'em all!
PS: Anton--I personally found the cartoon version of LOTR to be not what I was hoping for, but you judge for yourself. I probably would rent it rather than buy it first. As for fave movie... hmm, that's tough. I like a lot of different genres so my old time favorites might include stuff like The Graduate, Dangerous Liaisons & American Beauty. I think it's hard to find a good intelligent sci-fi these days, don't you? In that category, movies like Blade Runner, Brazil, Gattaca and The Matrix (the 2nd Matrix is another movie I'll be standing in long lines for this summer, I'm sure!)