Safe pair of hands

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2003)

Peter Jackson deserves something more than the degraded Oscar for not letting cinema-goers down with the final installment of the LOTR trilogy. Is this movie perfect in every respect? No. Is it a rousing finale to one of the finest series of films ever made? Yup, damn diggity!
Everything Jackson said he would do with ROTK, he does

the Battle of Pelennor Fields kicks Helm's Deep (and just about all other film battles) into a bucket.

the relationship between Frodo, Sam and Gollum grows in meaning and stature

the other two hobbits justify their existences from being comedic add-ons to members of the Fellowship

Aragorn takes on the responsibilities of kingship when he must

I think for many who have read the books, Fellowship of the Ring is the most important. I however always preferred ROTK. A couple of bits were missing which I wish he had included but I assume they will be in the extended DVD version:
1) The face-off between the Witch-King and Gandalf at the gates of Minas Tirith once Grond has broken open the way. (in fact without this one line in the film where the Witch-King says he will 'break' Gandalf makes little sense)
2) The Mouth of Sauron and final despair outside the Black Gates
The non-inclusion of the Houses of Healing and the non-filming of any of the Scouring of the Shire I can fully understand, but the above two scenes present some wonderfully dramatic opportunities. Anyways what to do?
As for the ending...jeez, what do people want?
"O.K. everyone now I'm King everything is cool and that's the end of that. Goodbye and take care"?
The whole idea is that some things changes one's life forever, there is no going back and some must sacrifice their futures for the good of others...exactly what the final scenes try to show. Perhaps Frodo's pain could have been conveyed more deeply or emphatically? But I find it hard to comprehend when people moan about the ending. What the hell did you want?
Anyways hats off to Mr Jackson for proving all the doubters and naysayers (including myself) comprehensively wrong. Big-budget cinema can still deliver epics when suitably controlled.
Lucas you self-satisfied prig, are you watching?