Yeah, Arwen is as necessary to the movies as she it to the books (i.e., not). But, given that she's in the movie, I don't think she screwed it up that much -- it was really just extraneous speculation of about things that happened off screen in the books.
I liked many of the other things they put into the movies that were off screen in the books. The Paths of the Dead, for instance. That was pretty well done.
As RRRRRRR says, it is visually stunning and much truer to the books than a lot of other screen adaptations I could name (e.g., Dune <spit>).
My biggest disappointment, but one that I expected, is that they cut entirely the fight against Saruman on the return home. That's my favorite part. Ah well, my arse was sore after 200 minutes -- another 30 could have killed me.
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