Better, but...

Rating: 6/10 (12 January 2005)

The conventional wisdom that this is the best of the three is certainly true, but I still can't call this a great movie. Just like the others in the series, there's lots of style but just not much story. And also just like the others, it's a three hour movie that would have made a better two hour movie. The FX are remarkable, but the characters for me are still just not all that interesting. I'm not sure how it was accomplished, but Jackson managed to put over nine hours on film without creating characters I cared about (with the exception of a modest amount of sympathy for the long-suffering Sam). I enjoy sci-fi, fantasy, and adventure flicks, but watching this for me was more like an endurance test than a three hour escape into fantasy. I'm sure lots of Tolkien fans out there are going to be deeply offended, but I'm afraid there are some of us that don't find the stories all that gripping.