Sad that it's (almost) over

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2003)

I have the same feeling with these movies as with reading the book again: the feeling of leaving your own world and getting absorbed in this fantastic world that has history, mythical creatures, languages, a great story, wonderful characters and so much more. Every time I've finished reading the books I have wanted more - this is why people read the Unfinished tales and the Silmarillion, books not as wonderful or accessible as the LOTR, but more of this world. Now when I read all the comments on this movie, I see that people are like me and want more of the same world. It's just difficult to accept that this world never actually existed.. That we won't find more stories from Middle Earth...
*warning: spoilers may be ahead!*
I really enjoyed ROTK. The battle scene on the Pelennor fields was wonderful, especially when the riders of Rohan came and just rode OVER the orc armies. Grand. Then when they in turn had to swallow a couple of times when they saw the oliphaunt army. Some things surprised me positively by being so true to the book, like the scene at Mount Doom when Frodo has to get rid of the ring, or Éowyn slaying the Witch King (I loved that!). Some things disappointed me slightly by being unnecessarily black-and-white or different from the book. Éowyn, having been in love with Aragorn, doesn't get to show her growing affection for Faramir. Denethor is just crazy and bad in the movie, while he was treated more fairly in the book. Arwens part is too big, and I don't know why she always has to pop up everywhere. Sure, for the romance part, but hey, we get it. One way the occupation of the Shire by Saruman could have been dealt with was a voice over telling us about it, showing some quick battle scenes, and then a peaceful Shire with the four hobbits drinking beer together. I was happy that the remaining pain of Frodo was shown, and his thoughts on how hard it was to pick up his live, and how damaged he was. I appreciated details as his chain with the ring cutting into his flesh, even though this was not mentioned. Sean Astin was great as Sam, and gets a lot of credit for it, but Elijah Wood was great as Frodo too. He showed his agony, pain and the force of the Ring on him very well, in a subtle way. He was quiet and bore his burden as I would have thought Frodo did. The hobbits were all great characters and were acted very well.
Two more things that I felt could have done better: the book frequently mentions how Aragorn became larger than life at times, especially when he had embraced his destiny as King of Gondor. This was not so clear in the movie. It would have been nice to see him shine more. The same goes for Gandalf. In the book his very presence often induces fright on the enemy's side - the one time we saw this was when he kept the nazgûl away from the army outside of Minas Tirith.
Despite my comments I loved the movie. I was happy to get to see wonderful Minas Tirith, Minas Morgul, and the Grey Havens, though the latter passed quickly. It makes me want to read the book again and see what is different, and how the cast and crew has interpreted and worked with the book. ROTK (and the entire LOTR) is an outstanding performance. I can feel the dedication of the people involved, and I thought all leading and supporting actors did outstanding performances. At one moment during the movie I wondered: who in New Zealand hasn't contributed to this movie??
Now it's just waiting for the extended version on DVD... At least we'll always have these movies to rewatch and the books to reread. Thanks JRR Tolkien and Peter Jackson!