I thought it was a huge disappointment, most of all due to the CG.

• Everything looks hueless, often with only a few colors, with weird light angles and enemies often shown as a blur. As if it was made to put everyone on the same level as those who are colorblind and visiually impaired.
• Soundtrack was a dissonance of what went on on screen.
• The towns and villages were beautifully animated and showed wide shots of them, so one could be sure that they were missing any signs of food production or water sources.
• The world did not just look dry in color, but also literally dry. Especially the shire which gives it a plastic feel to it.

All of those put together made me feel it was taking place on a pre-dinosaur earth or not yet fully terraformed planet Mars, rather than a place of fantasy and wonder.

And Saruman’s death was absent in the theatrical cut. One of the most important parts of the story was simply cut out.