Peter Jackson managed to pull off a minor miracle: he made J.R.R. Tolkiens work accessible to the mainstream public with his brilliant adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, a series that many considered to be unfilmable. Before that, most of the non-fantasy reading public was likely to think of elves as the little guys that work in Santas North Pole workshop, making toys. Isnt Spock some kind of elf? And didnt Gollum get a mention in an old Led Zeppelin song, somewhere? Hardcore fans missed a few things: notably Tom Bombadil (who did appear in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) and the Scouring of the Shire. Some took umbrage with the changes in tone and themes running through the plot and characters. But in a series that runs three hours each in the theaters (or four hours each if you watch the Extended Editions on DVD/Blu-ray), theres some extraneous material that probably should have been purged in the scriptwriting sessions. They might serve as a mild amusing aside, or be a nod to the folks who have obsessed over the trilogy as youths, but they really dont add that much to the story. Others are tropes that get tiresome after they've happened several times. With that in mind, we present 11 moments that can be ignored or quickly passed over in favor of the next scene. It goes without saying that there are spoilers ahead, but how many of you reading this site are likely to have not seen the films?
