A worthy conclusion to an epic adventure but misses some of the spirit of the source material

Rating: 9/10 (2 February 2017)

When I first saw this movie it was in 2003, in the cinema, as a teenager. I had read the books and eagerly waited to see the conclusion to this epic trilogy, and I was floored. It was everything I ever wanted and more. And when the special extended edition came out on DVD (the next Christmas if I recall correctly), I was first in line to buy it, and my jaw dropped at the amount of all the new material. The Witch King raising a flaming sword! A mountain of skulls tumbling under Aragorn's feet! Saruman's death scene (although it didn't happen at the place it did in the books)! The movie delivered, and I was satisfied.
Today, I'm less satisfied. I feel that a lot of the magic of the first movie, 'The Fellowship of the Ring', was in small, everyday things, like Sam Gamgee sitting in The Green Dragon, or Strider tossing an apple at Pippin's head, or Gandalf's frown as he explains why it is impossible for him to be late. 'The Return of the King' is quiet and introspective at the prolonged end, which I always liked (Jack Nicholson said that he walked out before the end because there were too many), but most of the movie is focused on war. And it's not a real war like Helm's Deep in the previous film, but a fantasy war of computer-generated armies and pompous speeches. At the end, when the heroes are at dire need, the fiendish orcs are plummeted into a chasm that opens beneath their feet in one of the most ridiculous deus ex machinas I've witnessed.
I think that somewhere along the way Peter Jackson missed something of the spirit of the book, the essence of it. He glorifies action and adventure, conflict and power, not the smallfolk's small wisdom.
Sauron was never meant to be a fiery lighthouse, turning his spotlight gaze on Frodo, who just in time hides behind a rock. The army of the dead was never meant to be a green, translucent host of invincible soldiers who tear down a Mûmakil. Legolas was never meant to be a beast-slaying, shield-surfing, three-arrows-at-once-firing superman. All the things that mar The Hobbit trilogy are present here, in smaller doses, but they're there if you know how to look. Out of the three Lord of the Rings movies, this one aged the worst.