Ugh! this movie was too awful for words!

Rating: 1/10 (18 August 2004)

The third Lord of the Rings movie was absolutely painful to watch. Even worse than the second one, it had me cringing and groaning all the way through; and not because of any empathy for the characters, but simply because the acting, the scripting, and the everything was so . . . so - so - so. . . stupid. And that is quite the word I was looking for. (Beauty and the Beast). Arwen makes me so mad for appearing at all the wrong times and far too frequently. It's all very well to say "director's privilege to change parts of the novel" and all right, I'm fine with that privilege, but it can be taken too far!!!!! Arwen only appears twice throughout the books, and her character is only established in the appendix. J. R. R. Tolkien is most likely turning in his grave, or at least frowning furiously from afar, as he watches these mutilations of his wonderful trilogy. And when Denethor jumped off the pyre, I almost died laughing . . . and I don't think that was the reaction Peter Jackson was aiming for. Ah well, disappointment comes in all shapes and sizes, and the biggest disappointment of my life came in the form of a movie called The Return of the King.