Two Towers - Extended versions (**SPOILERS**)

[Tancred]

They extended the battle of Helm's Deep (a small part of the book) and from the way they showed the scene with Galadriel and Frodo looking into the pool, it looks like they are going to cut out the entire part of the story after they destroy the ring. Thus, there is much more room in the third movie, so they are going to push the last third of the second book into the third movie to make up for it. That stinks, because the whole reason they have the part after they destroy the ring is to show how the four hobbits have become stronger (it is like a coming of age of sorts; the three books really follow their development from squeamish homebodies to heroes, much like the Hobbit followed Bilbo's own journey).

When you get down to it, the changes made make sense. The Battle of Helm's Deep is only a small part in the book, you'll notice, because Tolkien barely wrote anything about it! Lord of the Rings is an epic, the battles aren't written blow-by-blow.

The last bit of Two Towers... now this is where the movie is in theory being more faithful to the story than the book is. The Frodo and Sam storyline in TT is way ahead of the Other People storyline. The film cuts them both out on more or less the same day. I think Frodo and Sam journey through Cirith Ungol at the same time as Aragorn is leading his 'summoned' army...

Yes, the Scouring of the Shire is all about the Hobbits and their emergence and affirmation of heroic status. The film isn't about the Hobbits' persepctive. It would jar. Worse, it would be anticlimactic in the extreme. In the book it works wonderfully, it's the battle for Middle-Earth in miniature. Film... no. They're NOT cutting the Scouring because they don't have time for it!