Haven't seen the movie yet, but Desdemona's comments put me in mind of the old Ralph Bakshi attempt at animating the tale in TWO movies (the first installment took the viewer halfway through "The Two Towers", as I recall). That movie sparked similar comments, notably that the battle scenes were unnecessarily long.

Personally, I don't see why LOTR isn't presented as three-or-four-films-per-book (9 or 12 movies), when people have no trouble accepting the concept of a Star Wars trilogy-of-trilogies. I suppose it must be because LOTR is so well-known that the movies wouldn't hold any surprises for most viewers, whereas the Star Wars story is a new invention, each part of which is a mystery until it comes to theaters.