Actually I'd have swapped Wormtongue killing Saruman in for even the theatrical post script stuff, at least that feels somewhat plot relevant and like a loose end wrapped up, and more or less how the book handles it once you skip past needing to defeat Saruman again for some damned reason. But then the extended edition adds useless things like Gandalf encountering The Witch King, which really messes up the pacing of the Rohirim coming to the rescue while filling in the minorest of plotholes of where Gandalf's staff went. The movies themselves end with the pull back from Minas Tirith and everyone bowing to Sam and the gang pacing wise the rest is just post script and ye gods is there a lot of it. It's already way too long, sure complain about the scouring of the shire all you want. Now the third one, that's the one that's way overboard. And the only really big problem with the second is the odd back to back flashbacks Faramir has, which feels like it both takes too long and is a weird pacing and editing choice. I'd say the first extended edition actually flows better than the first theatrical cut, that opening just feels better all around for example.
