I wish I had been in on the beginning of this thread, but, alas, as I am a newbie I'll just creep in quietly now....
For me, the problem with TTT was the effect it had on RotK. By this I mean that PJ's decision to try to synchronize the 3 storylines chronologically left him with padding needed for TTT and too much left over for RotK.
I am in agreement with Solicitr regarding the ending of TTT:
Properly that should indeed have been the fall of Saruman, intercut with Frodo's capture by Faramir. The discovery that this 'obstacle' was in fact a friend, even at the risk of his duty, would have made a far more fitting end than the Osgiliath nonsense. And a serious cutdown of HD screen time would have permitted giving the Ents their proper significance, not reduced to rather dimwitted bores (assuming, naively, that PJ ever understood Ents).
I was happy to go along with leaving Shelob over to RotK, but PJ left himself with so much to squeeze into RotK that vital end were left untied - especially Saruman's downfall - and there was no time left to develop Faramir & Éowyn's story in the HoH.
My qualm with Faramir's depiction is why was it ok for Aragorn to be able to resist the Ring without a second's hesitation, but not Faramir? Tolkien's way was to show the difference in the brother's characters. Instead, PJ gave us the ridiculous Osgiliation. If you want you could draw a religious allegory from it: Tolkien gave us Faramir as someone who could believe the dangers of the Ring without seeing proof, whereas PJ thought Faramir should be more of a Doubting Thomas.
All in all, tho' I think Tosh sums it up for me best:
I tot up all those precious seconds and minutes where Jackson wanders off the story to insert his inferior additions and think how they could have been used. Still all the same I enjoyed TTT. The opening was brilliant. Gollum was a revelation. Rohan despite a few dodgy lines and landscapes was magnificently realised. Helm's Deep was wonderfully dramatic, perhaps too dramatic when compared to the Pelennor. The trudge of Sam and Frodo and Gollum and their debates were captured without tedium. The trouble is that the small things that were bad were like a tiny stone in an expensive shoe, more irritating than their size would suggest.
There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.
~Diana Cortes