The World's Longest Ending!

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2003)

After a brilliant run - The Return of the King is a fulfilling yet disappointing experience. The biggest challenge was: how do you top 2 great movies? The cracks begin to show in this almost perfect moviegoing experience. It feels like they rushed this one.
In between the horses galloping out of a castle here and galloping to another castle there - I sense some fatigue on the part of the filmmakers. There's more time spent in setting up the big battles than telling a story.

The problem with Pt. 3 is that the same tricks don't work anymore. They've turned into cliches. The Return of the King reminded me in different parts of Rawhide, the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Braveheart all rolled into one. The majesty and grandeur has by and large become a teary overwrought, sentimental affair. How many times can you handle Frodo shivering like a junkie and crying with Sam? There are more scenes of people hugging and crying in this movie than I can count.
The storytelling has given way to endless battle scenes ad nauseum. The battles are definitely exciting but look similar to part 2. More disappointingly, the characters haven't progressed much in general with some exceptions. The result is everyone looks more cardboard and cartoony than usual. More backstory or added layers would have been welcome instead of the Universal Studios Theme Park approach. I liked them as fantasy characters but seriously portrayed.
And why did they dump Christopher Lee? There seems to be no reason except that he had no real contact with anyone. At 3.5 hours - they could and should have found a place for him in there. Instead, the scenes are overlong and Peter Jackson tortures the audience with false ending after false ending. This Lord of the Rings episode is done to excess, but still stirs the heart in places.
I do wish they'd lopped off 90 minutes, but there you go, warts and all. Still a tough act to pull off.