Overly long ending and contrived situations ruined the experience

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2003)

I enjoyed the first two films and was expecting the third to be a slam-dunk, especially given the reviews it received. A week has gone by and I am still angry at the filmmakers and sore from the sit.
First of all, the film should have ended at least 20 minutes earlier...perhaps 40 minutes earlier. What followed after about two hours-forty was a series of anti-climactic, "wrap-up" scenes" that should have been cut and saved for the extended DVD version. They totally took the air out of the balloon for me (not to mention killing my lower back).
I guess Peter Jackson just hated to say, "Good-bye."
Next, a number of the scenes in the big battle were contrived and predictable (e.g., "No Man can kill me") -- as was the rescue of Frodo and Sam (who somehow were unaffected by the searing heat and poisonous gasses emitted from an erupting volcano). I won't even mention the incredulous "survivability" of Gollum.
Yes, I know it is a fantasy story, but people did die in it...albeit VERY, VERY slowly. I would have preferred just a tad more realism. After Legolas, Arragon, and Gimli fought off about 10,000 Orcs themselves, you would think they'd be a bit bruised. Heck, I've had worse scratches after shaving than they had.
My biggest gripe was that only at the end of the Trilogy did I learn how much time had elapsed (13 months). Other than that, I had no sense of how long anything took to happen.
Overall, I liked The Two Towers a lot more than ROTK.