ok, got home late and talked to the wife so went to bed. but here goes.
The oliphaunts may have been difficult. But I think the fact that the Rohirim are the best horsemen in the world, plus the fact that the whole idea is that the Rohirim are crapping their pants even as they line up to charge is what made it believable. The idea is that even though they all expected to die, they went ahead. Middle-Earth is full of magical connections not in real life, and I suspect that's something you could easily pull in: The Rohirim and their horses are bonded in a way they could over come their mutual fears.
OTOH: the initial cavalry charge was INCREDIBLY realistic, whereas the similar scene in TTT was hard to get around. See, the idea behind a shield wall is that nothing gets through it. Cavalry was introduced because it was scary as heck for the infantry in the shield walls, but it was 100% perception. If a shield wall held, no horse was even going to try to get through it. They'd charge real close, but not do anything. The only way around it I can think of in TTT is that Gandalf definitely DOES have a more intense "friendship" with shadowfax, and it's he who hits the wall first, breaking it, allowing the other riders in. In RotK, however, the fear effect comes in like it should, the wall breaks before the cavalry even hits it, and after that, cavalry can easily decimate the disorganized and fearful infantry. Nice.
What was with that deformed orc with a bad arm? Why didnt' the other orcs just eat him and appoint another leader? No, he wasn't a good fighter. He was pretty crap and moved even more awkwardly than the other orcs.
Nice touch with Aragorn laying smack down on the dead guys. Me likies.
Any of you other Mormons catch Gandalf talking about the sea of glass? That resonated well. Me likies too.
I was into the end as well, though this three stupid cows behind me really shouldn't have even been in the theater. They kept sighing in frustration when it kept going. I turned around and told them they'd already had more than 10 bucks worth of movie, and if it was boring them, they should leave. They pissed me off.
In fact, I wanted to see more. I wanted to see Faramir and Eowyn hook up like in the book, but I guess they were really pressed for time.
I DID really want to see Gandalf v. Saruman at Isengard. V. disappointed that Pippin just found the palantir. Happy with the scene where he looked in the Palantir, but disappointed again that we didn't get to see Aragorn defeat it (after all, this is how everyone knows that he's back, right? How else does the Steward of Gondor know the king is coming?)
Liked how they handled Denethor's death, personally, but the stupid cows behind me giggled. I nearly told them to shut it then.
Mucho cool stuff. Much of anything else I can say is just repetition. Despite disappointment at things being left out, I though Jackson made great editing decisions to get it down as short as he did. Looking forward to more in the DVD, though. Of especially pleasingness is not ruining the Arwen/Aragorn thing and redeeming the Faramir character (which really happens in the TTT extended bits). Also, I liked how the Shelob bit was done. More action than in the book, but still fairly true to what goes on. The tower scene with the orc fight was really nice too.