An incredible amount of fighting

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2003)

There will be at least one spoiler in this review.
The movie is mostly about battle scenes and armies massing. After a while, I just held my hands up into the air to block my view of the endless fighting.
Still, I guess it was good. I really got that sense of terror that soldiers must feel in battle, especially when the greatly outnumbered forces of the good guys faced the armies of the bad; and also you had to respect what kind of bravery it must take to ride into a huge crowd of armed hostiles. Never having actually been a military person, I can't say as I've ever had the opportunity to feel this much empathy for armed forces in battle before.

Nevertheless, I kept thinking that in a real war, we don't face orcs, trolls, oliphaunts, and Nazgul, we face other human beings and killing them is not glorious like this. The kind of courage that the men in this movie aspire to is seductive, but a false lure to violence for the viewer. You find yourself wanting to should "Death" with the riders of Rohan and charge into battle, no matter whether there is one available or not. I found particularly offensive the way the elf and troll keep counting how many they have killed as part of their competition. I suppose this really is in the book, but the glorification of violence is just disgusting.
It was intriguing that many of the battle scenes were so chaotic that it was impossible to guess what was happening until it was over and one saw who was lying dead on the field. I suppose that real battle scenes must be that way too
The special effects were extremely well done, mostly. I found the oliphaunts and Nazgul particularly believable. The trolls and ENTS were not quite so.
The sets were absolutely magnificent -- especially the city of Minas Tirith -- just WOW!!
I do take a bit of issue with the photography, though. Some of the sweeps and pans made me queasy, because of motion discomfort. We were just flying around *too* much. This could have been handled better.
The scenes in Mordor were almost exactly the way I had imagined them from the book. It was amazing to me that Peter Jackson saw them just as I had done.
I can't say as I've ever understood the selection of the actors and actresses for the elves. These people are supposed to be just unbelievably beautiful/handsome. The actresses chosen for Arwen and Galadriel, while not ugly, just don't rise to the occasion. Moreover, Elrond is simply butt ugly. Legolas is good-looking, but not beautiful. The only guy in the whole movie who really should have been an elf was Karl Urban. He was the only one with the looks. That actor should have changed places with the guy playing Legolas.
Now I would like to discuss the spoilers -- and the total outrage of this movie, namely the omission of the battle for the Shire. The trilogy of The Lord of the Rings is focused on issues such as struggling with temptation, personal growth, and finding strength within oneself. The battle of the Shire really shows the transformation of the hobbit characters and how strong they have become. Moreover, the missing battle shows what happened to Sauron. A teenage friend whom I brought to the movie wondered where Sauron had gone. Well, duh, they left that out.
NO PETER JACKSON YOU CAN'T LEAVE THAT OUT. IT'S AT THE VERY HEART OF THE STORY! AUGGH!
Similarly, the death of the witch king was poorly handled. The book makes clear that his death is what routs the opposing forces in the battle for Minas Tirith, while that is not at all clear from the movie. You really don't understand his significance or the greatness of the feat of killing him by watching this.
Anyway, it is a great spectacle despite its flaws.