Reply to Mark S.
Jeff C.

To quote Mark:

"One thing's for sure... the "favourite character" won't be that pathetic, irrelevant, spaced-out, wash-his-hands-clean-of-the-whole-thing, maia-gone-feral, Bombadil character! Way to go, Jackson, for getting rid of him. He would have been as stupidly annoying as Jar Jar Binks!! 'How woo-ood! Hey Dol Derry Doh!" Durrhhh!!"

I think it is rather obvious that you just do not get the full meaning of the books if you think Bombadil was an irrelavent part of the story.  If it was so irrelavent, it would have never been placed in the books. 

I have read many of the cuts that were taken out of Tolkiens works, and they by themselves are interesting reading and makes you wonder why they were even taken out.  Tolkien left Bombadil in the books for a reason, and it wasn't, as some have said, to please his daughter.

Tom is the initiation for the hobbits.  When the hobbits leave the shire, they are used to basically an Old English style of living.  Rather boring, calm, and full of food and beer.  The hobbits need to be shown that the world that they are entering is nothing like the world that they are leaving.

Something along the lines of when Gandalf says to Pippin in Moria: "Fool of a Took! This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking party!"

Bombadil is a soft way of showing this.  Is it comical? yes.  But Tolkien needed a way to basically tell the hobbits that they were "not in Kansas anymore".

"Swords, schmords! Who cares where they got 'em from - and so what about the spooky dooky barrow downs!? They can pick up any old Numenorian sword leftover loot from anywhere... trollshaws, for example!
"

Actually, no they couldn't as old swords of this power were never just laying around.   It wasn't like you could find Numenor swords just laying around.

I mean, sure you could modify the Tolkien World to supply this, but then why even go to Bree, why not just meet up with strider on the road and go straight to Weathertop?   Why not just get to Mount Doom and skip everything?  I mean do we really need the phial of Galadriel?  Does Gandalf really need a staff?  Why can't he just use a wand like a Disney Fairy?  Gimli could use a club instead of an axe, and who cares about the sword that was broken, just give Strider a common sword that he found in Bree, it obviously really doesn't matter.  Does it have to be a ring?  Why can't it be the Evil Neckless Of Sauron?

Get the point?

 "As for Glorfindel... Glorfindel who? Frankly I forgot about the character within pages of first hearing about him."

Um, I guess you must of got bored with the Battle At The Ford too.  Im sure the Nazgul Horses would have run straight into the river at the showing of the fierceness of hobbits running after them.  I mean, what's the difference between hobbits chasing the Nazgul steeds into the river or an Elf Lord like Glorfindel?  The same token could be applied to Elrond.  I mean, do we really need this old Elf telling us long stories in the movie?  The movie should just focus on Rivendell long enough for them to form the grey company and get out.  Elrond who?

I really hope that your name Mark S. isn't an ALIAS and that your real name is Peter Jackson, or we are all in for a big disappointment.

Just my two cents (again)