Very good, but too long?

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2003)

As expected, this was a very well made movie. The acting was as good as it has been throughout the trilogy, the scenery was amazing. The seamless usage of CGI and "real" footage was simply stunning allowing for some of the most incredible shots ever seen (the attack on Gondor). Gollum was brilliant, again. This is another milestone for CGI usage. They didn't shy away from close-ups of Gollum either. Other CGI elements weren't flawless but very good nevertheless. But! As brilliant as it was technically, somewhere underneath there is a movie, a story, something that will affect our emotions. I've read about people crying a lot during this movie, but to be honest, I didn't think it had that many super-emotional scenes. I guess you have to be a "Lord of the rings" -geek to immerse yourself enough into the plot, to evoke these emotions. (And I'm not, I've never read the books or anything, I'm just enjoying the movie...unspoiled..) There were scenes I didn't necessarily find briliant but as I haven't read the books I can't really comment whether they should have been included or not. Then of course we have the longest ending in movie history. I suppose Jackson felt that as an ending to the entire 10 hours long trilogy, it had to be of epic proportions, but it certainly felt as if the last 30 minutes could have been compressed to 10 or 15 without any significant loss of info. I just hope that the extended DVD version doesn't add to that particular footage. All in all, a very well made movie, I'm certainly glad someone decided to produce this kind of epic entertainment for us to enjoy, but at the end of the day I guess it's down to personal taste whether you think it's brilliant or just "very good". And I think it was "just" very good.