At one point I felt the same, BP. I had not read the books, but I knew the basic premise of the story. By the time ROTK was out, I had pried enough information out of my LOTR-nerd friends to know there was no giant glorious battle against Sauron at the end, but I was hoping he'd at least make a (pseudo-)menacing appearance, even if he was obviously weak.

But after seeing FOTR and TTT I no longer felt the big final battle was necessary. I understood that it wasn't what the story was about. It's a sombre story about sacrifice, not an action flick.

I did think the climb up Mt Doom and the destruction of the ring was stretched rather thin, "like butter scraped over too much bread." Of course that's the moment the entire 9 hours was building to, so yes, it had to be dramatic, but it wasn't. It just plain dragged on.