To me, the real end seemed somewhat rushed, yet I liked it - but it was quite confusing cuz there were five or six times when everybody [who hasnt read the book] thought "now it's over". Was cut too hard. In the book this is far more fluent so thats no problem, but PJ always jumped from one pseudo-ending to another. And many important things were missing... no new white tree, no healing for Eowyn, Faramir and Merry and so on - not to speak of the scouring of the shire.
ok i havent read all your posts so i mite be being redundant, but this is my opinion:
The ending was very very very good, and totally necessary. i t showed yet antoher theme (that soemtimes you cant go back to the way things were) and it shows a sort of realization...ooo i dont kno how to put it....al i kno is that it was perfect and it left the audience with a feeling they cant explain, but its good.....
I really liked the ending, but afterwards I realized that after Mt. Doom there was almost no talking. A little at the Grey Havens, but that was about it. And while I missed the Scouring of the Shire, I can see how it wouldn't have really worked well. I liked that it ended the same as the book though, with Sam coming back to the Shire. That made me quite happy.