Incredible

Rating: 10/10 (11 July 2009)

This movie, and indeed all the Lord of the Rings movies, is the best that I have ever seen. In fact, I wouldn't consider this a movie, because generally when I watch a movie it's just entertainment for me, not something to be remembered and thought of long after I've watched it. This masterpiece of film-making, this beautiful, moving, incredible conclusion to a trilogy which held me in amazement from the battle at the plains of Gorgoroth to the Ringbearers passing at the Grey Havens, is perhaps the best adaptation of a book, ever. If you are perhaps reading this comment having not seen the movies, buy them and watch them, now. The best way to watch them is not one after another, quickly, without time to reflect on each one, but one evening after another, with time to appreciate and understand Tolkien's masterpiece. I've seen the comments on this movie, few as they are, which nearly all say that they loved the books and hated the movies, giving various reasons as to why. I'll give you a few examples.
1. The characters weren't developed at all.
I'm sorry? The actors and actresses from the movies were all incredible, doing what they were best at amazingly well. Ian McKellen, the actor who played Gandalf, does one of perhaps the best performances I've ever seen. Elijah Wood, as Frodo, understands the effect the Ring has on the hobbit and shows that knowledge to create a moving performance of an individual struggling against a power that is too great to bear. I could go on, but it's not necessary. Every single character in that film is as well developed as anyone would be in real life.
2. The Scouring of the Shire was not shown.
I can give a completely logical explanation for this. In the book, near to the end of ROTK, Frodo and Sam destroy the Ring and Sauron and all evil is defeated. The hobbits, weary of all their adventures and sorrows, return home to find that Saruman and Wormtongue have taken over the Shire, and are forced to defeat them as well. Now, to me and most other people that have read the books, this is seen as a huge anticlimax. Think about it in movie form. The audience, having watched an amazing three hours of film, are now ready for the end. Then suddenly Saruman pops out of nowhere and has almost ruined the Shire. In the books this is acceptable, because it shows that evil can come to the most good of places. But this has already been shown many times in other parts of the book, like Lothlorien, Fangorn, and Ithilien, to some extent.
3. Too much CGI.
I can answer this criticism fairly quickly. Imagine if there was little or no CGI in the Lord of the Rings movies. All it would be would be close up shots of the actors and places, with maybe a few actors in prosthetic makeup. This would never give the sense of scale necessary for the books. For the places and things Tolkien describes, you need CGI, and I cannot see how anyone could possibly criticise that.
4. Not true to the books
SO WHAT? Any movie that you see that is based on a book is never, and I repeat never, completely and utterly true to the book. Peter Jackson took these masterpieces of literature and turned them into masterpieces of film-making, and people who say they weren't true to the books are sometimes right, but the films must be seen as works of art in their own right. Actually, the love story between Aragorn and Arwen is used in the movies and fitted in perfectly with the rest, whereas Tolkien put this in the appendices. There aren't other any major criticisms that I can find, apart from petty things like "they sucked" and "I walked out 30 minutes before the end". These comments are not worthy of argument mainly because they are made by people that probably have never seen the sun. Sorry about that, but it had to be said.
Still, there are just some people who don't like fantasy, and don't like these films. Fine! I can respect that. But really these films aren't just fantasy. They're a story that has enchanted generations, a tale of war, peace, beauty, good, evil, friendship, hope, fear and love, that would work in any genre. I challenge any film-maker to surpass these films ever again, and I'm sure that in fifty years these films will still be popular, with people watching them in goggles in 3D blu-ray. Just speculating!
Anyway, for me these films are incredible. Nothing more to be said.