4. Faramir
One of my favorite characters in The Lord of the Rings is Faramir. The noble, quiet brother of the brash Boromir, Faramir helps Frodo in his quest and gets the girl when he and Eowyn fall in love after the battle of the Pelennor Fields. But the best part of him was his virtue vis-à-vis the Ring. In contrast to Boromir trying to steal the Ring, Denethor being driven mad by his intellectual pursuits, or even Bilbos temptation, Faramir does not give in to the allure of Saurons power. At least in the book. In the movies, Faramir at first comes off a bit sinister, threatening to turn Frodo and Sam over to Denethor because of some unresolved Daddy issues. Then he suddenly changed his mind and became nice. Not only was the character changed, it was ruined by this kind of stupid plot point. And in the special features on The Lord of the Rings DVDs, Boyens explains this was because a Faramir who was not tempted by the Ring would ruin the entire idea of the Ring. So the film adaptation hurt Faramirs character, and this occurred because the scriptwriter thought she could improve on Tolkiens work, one of the greatest books in the English language. This doesnt bode well for The Hobbit