Good but Not Great

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2004)

I am glad they made this film and it is very entertaining overall. I love to escape the real world for a couple of hours and just drink in the atmosphere and experience adventures with characters that now feel like old friends. Also, the special effects are wonderful. Makes you feel like everything happening is so real. That is the best part.
I read the books and was looking forward to being blown away by the final installment because that's where all the buildup from the first two movies is supposed to finally tie up all the loose ends and finish in a blaze of glory. The movie does this....to a point.
Unfortunately, I feel that the greatest weakness is the lack of character development and a good flowing storyline. I think in the simplest terms there is just too much material and there was probably not enough time to edit it properly. I hope they take greater care in the extended DVD edition. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the ROTK extended DVD turns out like the Two Towers did. That film was greatly improved in the DVD version.
FOTR was the best of the bunch because middle earth came to life and the story was presented pretty darn near to perfection. Not too many battles, not too many sentimental scenes, and not too many special effect fill ins. Balanced might be a good way to describe the first film.
The Two Towers was a bit longer and drawn out (as mentioned earlier, personally I like the extended edition better...it fills up the holes in the story better, particularly in regard to Faramir and Boromir) and was uniquely different and special because of the introduction of Gollum. Also, middle portions of a story are pretty tough to pull off but it was done well.
ROTK looked a bit chopped up to me. Time was wasted in certain areas and important items left out. (Spoilers may follow):
1. Too much time spent on Denethor. I really didn't enjoy watching him eat his food for so long. Establishment of his madness could have been handled better. Did he have any redeeming qualities?
2. Too much time spent on Arwen. Could have moved this along a little faster.
3. Too much time spent on close-ups of orcs and their darn teeth. Big yawn.
4. Battles are great but too much emphasis on battles. Of course, this sells many tickets with the "we need excitement every minute" crowd.
5. Too much crying. In the books I don't remember Sam being so weepy.

6. What happened to Saruman and Wormtongue? Poof, gone. No really good explanation except they are stuck in a tower and watched by Treebeard.
7. Faramir disappears looking like a corpse. Then he reappears looking fit as a fiddle. Did we miss something?
8. Eowyn is crying over Theoden. She was supposed to look after Merry too but nothing on that and Poof, she is gone. Oh, there she is again near the end all of a sudden, smiling and looking great. Did we miss something there too?
9. Merry looks in worse shape than Eowyn at the end of the altercation but he shows up in the last battle and she doesn't. Why? Do hobbits bounce back from battle faster than women? Not sure.
10. What made Theoden such a great hero? He didn't seem to be very good at doing very much.
11. Our hobbit friends have been through a lot of tough situations over the course of the three films. This is a little gripe of mine, but I think the maturation process from innocent, small town hobbit to battle scarred veterans could have been handled a little bit better. I don't think I would have had them giggling/laughing and jumping on Frodo's bed at the end...but that's just me, perhaps.
That's just a short list, but because of these issues and more, the movie is Good, but Not Great.
Finally, I have no problem with the multiple endings, because I was sad to see everyone go and I have a hard time saying goodbye myself. Personally, though, I would have ended it with the ship sailing into the west.
Good job, to all involved. Sean Astin, in particular, you deserve an award for a standout performance. Well done. Peter Jackson, thanks for some great memories and a lot of fun in the past three years.