Excellent. Who needs the book?

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2003)

Minor spoilers. I'll try not to be too specific.
If you're one of the remaining 27 people who haven't seen any of the LotR movies, go ahead and rent them now so you can see this. If you have a friend (like me) who has the extended DVD box sets, borrow them. The extra footage is well worth it. It'll take you about 3 days to watch both movies.
(Edit: I wrote this when it was still at the theatres. And the extended DVD is longer!)
RotK was as good as everyone says. I didn't see the other two in the theatre, but borrowed the extended DVD's before watching this. I read the first book in high school, and the first movie was better than the book. The second movie was better than that, and well, this third movie was just plain great.
OK, if you've read the books, that's nice. Seen the cartoons from the 1970's? Yeah, me too. Forget all that. This is better by far.
Acting - top notch. Costumes - perfect. Special effects - brilliant. Locations - breathtaking. Excitement - edge of your seat (my son was literally sitting a foot and a half forward on his chair, which made it easy for me to give him a 'gotcha' during the spider scene - yeah, cruel, I know).
There was wonderful tension between all the characters. Should Sam and Frodo kill Gollum, or keep him as a guide? How would Eowyn overcome Aragorn's love for Arwen? How could Faramir convince his father he's as brave as Boromir was? Who would rack up a higher death toll, Legolas or Gimli? And none of this got in the way of the action. It added to the action. It fueled it, just like it should in a great movie. I can't wait for the extended DVD to see what all was cut.
Fighting the Oliphaunts reminded me of The Empire Strikes Back, where they had to fight Imperial Walkers. That whole battle was amazing, and took up a huge chunk of the movie. And did the troop platforms on top of the Oliphaunts remind you a little of Jabba's dune barge in Return of the Jedi? Hmm.
The immense scope and size of the story approaches the ridiculous as the movie unfolds. The white castle is larger every time you see it, because they keep panning back from a higher altitude. And if you look closely when Frodo and Sam have climbed about a mile above the great keep of Mordor, you will see the armies still marching out on that road. That probably took them all day to get up that high. Just how many orcs are there, anyway?
Especially toward the end, they ran you through just about every emotion - elation, despair, victory, defeat, love, pride, hope, etc. It was hard keeping a dry eye. None of the characters wanted to be the weak link. Everyone displayed uncommon bravery and heroism, just like you would expect at the end of the world. Maybe Gollum or Boromir's father come close, but there's really no character there to hate or consider useless. There's no Jar Jar Binks here, folks.
My only small peeve is that the movie ended several times. When Sam and Frodo were on that rock at Mount Doom, they made it look like the end of the movie. The screen even went black. OK, so let's all get up and. wait! There's more. OK, so now they do this last bit and that's it. No, I was just kidding. Alright, this is really the end. Psyche! Basically, just sit there patiently. If it doesn't actually say 'The End', it's not. In case you're wondering, it's when you see a round door with a central door knob.
When it finally did end, I got up to leave. My son asked me if we should wait through the credits for 'end stuff'. I said you have to be kidding. It already ended 12 times.
And then we finally left the theatre. Everyone in there made a bee-line straight for the cinema bathrooms. It's 3 and a half hour long. So sit near the exit.