The movie was superbly acted. The various characters are very well brought to life, and the visual effects, for the most part, are simply outstanding. Speaking of characters, while the CGI for Gollum's character isn't perfect, his acting is top notch. I really got a feel for the split personality nature of this character, and more importantly, what was driving him. It was impressive to see a CGI character so well placed into a movie.

As much as I liked the movie, there are some elements changed from the book that fans of the books might have trouble with. There are two real big ones: Gimli's character, the dwarf, is less of an interesting character in the Movie. He's more there just for comic relief. You get a bit of a hint of his back-story in the first movie, but sadly, by the second movie, most of that is gone. That's not to say that his character is unwelcome in this movie, the comic element is very well done.

Another character changed a bit is Gandalf. While Peter Jackson does a good job of showing us how Gandalf is a bit of a God to the people of Middle Earth, he does skim over how Gandalf pulls the strings in the background to pull off some of the political tricks that he does.

Those quibbles aside, this is really a good movie, and no doubt all of the changes that were made were merely necessary to make the movie an acceptable length. I really look forward to seeing the third movie (and possibly the extended edition on DVD).