More on The Fellowship of the Ring:

It was wonderful. It really was. It stands on its own as a work inspired by the book.

However, to the purist, it must be regarded as separate from the book. It is not a faithful rendition of Tolkien's story. Surely it is not meant to be. I can understand that. Peter Jackson gets to take some liberties. He had to do what he could commit to and what he thought would sell.

But a lot of people are going overboard in their gushing.

I did a quick scan of the Daypop links for the website, and it seemed to me like a lot of people who gushed about it said things like 'I haven't read the books since sixth grade.' This is indicative of the distinction.

I don't think of Roger Ebert as an authority, but he got it right when he said "A true visualization of Tolkien's Middle-earth it is not." (via The One Ring).