Well, over the decades I have read LOTR, all four books, several times. The imagery for me was powerful. There used to be bumper stickers around when I was a kid that said "Frodo Lives", so the stories were subtly promoted everywhere, it seemed. The animated adaptations were fair and I was afraid of what Jackson may do.

I have watched Jackson's stories at least twice now. I did not miss the prancing Tom Bombadill nor did I miss a lot of extra stuff in the books such as the poetry or the singing (although that was left in The Hobbit animated feature and was striking in that film).

The finale, with Frodo at the lip of Mt. Doom and the true purpose of Smeagol revealed was an awesome piece of cinema. Jackson did an awesome job of adaptation, keeping in the main topics and leaving out some stuff that would not have added too much to the tale.

I was impressed!