wait for the extended edition DVD (possible spoilers)

Rating: 6/10 (18 December 2003)

I know I'm in the EXTREME minority, but I was very disappointed
with this movie, largely because I cared about (loved, actually!)
characters other than Sam, Frodo, Gollum and Gandalf. I am
absolutely in love with the character of Faramir, for example, and
felt completely cheated by the way his character was treated in this
movie. If Peter Jackson ultimately wasn't going to allow us to see
any happiness or reward come to the very deserving and
perpetually abused Faramir, why didn't he just eliminate the
character completely from the trilogy? The same could be said for
Eomer, who had one memorable line and that was about it.
Eowyn, another character I love, appeared on screen quite a bit to
suffer emotionally (and actually had a nice heroic scene), but then
we are denied the chance to see her find happiness at last! I won't
even discuss the anticlimactic let-down that constituted the
"resolution" of the Saruman story.
Sure, I care about Sam and Frodo, but there were a lot of other
characters we love who deserved to have some closure -- or even
to appear! As far as I'm concerned, the *real* "Return of the King"
doesn't come out until the extended edition appears and we get a
little more than Sam and Frodo.