a worthy finish

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2003)

wow.................... ok, I am still breathing. This is definitely the grand flourish that finishes the series. Epic, breathtaking and final. No more needs to be said !

Of course - one could list awesome settings, whether real, CGI or model, the true mother of all medieval battles ( I foresee an army of rip-offs going to copy this one ), great performances (Kudos for Bernhard Hill, John Temple and Viggo Mortensen - I never believed they could do real justice to those three rulers, but they did ) and an ending that truly kept the spirit of the book. Peter Jackson deserves an entire mountain range of praise for how he managed to pull this off.
As an aside - you need to have seen parts one and two to understand this,
latecomers to the series will be hopelessly lost plotwise. Second - while the battles are graphic, terrifying and violent, they are astoundingly blood-less. Still, not for the squeamish and faint at heart, and think hard about bringing children - if Helm's Deep had some bad moments, there is far darker stuff here ( especially for arachnophobiacs ). And yes - loath and dread from the rabid fans out there - Peter Jackson dared to edit some scenes to resolve in a different way from the book !
Let the "fanboys" ( I would call myself one - having read the book like 50 times in the last 25 years - but I loath the term and the people who claim to be "true fans", with the "one true vision" of the LOTR ) and nitpickers gripe and moan - I heard not one cheesy or cynical comment from the audience in the whole 3+ hours playing time (they sure weren't asleep ).
Honestly - who in his right mind cares if not each and every scene sequence and dialogue is precisely true down to the accentual inflections of what is written in the books - Jackson's (cinematic) telling of the story can stand proudly besides Tolkien's (literaic) one. Like the Hobbits - it needs bow to no-one ! 'nuff said.
Am off to get me tickets for another showing.
10 of 10 rings from me - and crossing my fingers the Academy will not do a cheap 'cop-out' on this one