Without a doubt FotR was better. I'm sure as a whole TTT will fit nicely, but on its own it just wasn't particularly good. They should have called it "The Two Asses" because that's how many you need to sit through it.
The battle of Helm's Deep wasn't too bad...once you frickin' got there. I swear, if there was any more of a buildup, we would have been watching it in RotK! This film needed some serious editing..."Oh my God the scenery is great!" Yeah, I saw it the first movie; can we get on with things please?
And Sam's speech at the end...snore! I saw the movie twice because I thought I'd appreciate it better (as I did with FotR), but it just didn't happen. This speech was even more unbearable the second time. I will not be seeing again on the big screen and have serious doubts as to whether I'll be picking up the imminent dvd release.