Too much of most of it

Rating: 5/10 (5 January 2004)

I have the impression the LOTR trilogy is in the same category as Matrix and others like them. A first movie is made to set a standard, but subsequent movies are not able to live up to the first. Such was my impressions from watching this third installment of the LOTR trilogy.
I really wanted to like this movie. This was when all would come to an end. When the story would be wrapped up, and all come to a conclusion. For me, this movie missed its mark with a couple of yards. But wait, there are nice things to say too. The scenery was good, and nature gave an overall impression of vastness and divergence of a country in turmoil. From the green fiends of Shire to the dark lands of Mordor.
From there things started to go downhill. I have seen plenty of movies being able to tell twice the amount of feeling in merely half the time of LOTR. The pacing is uneven, and many many loose ends hang from the story. No, I do not want to wait for the four hour plus DVD edition to see what becomes of i.e Saruman, I wanted to see conclusions, but in many cases all I get is a bunch of question marks.
All I can say about the acting was that it was meager, hidden behind layers upon layers of CGI. Today I hear people hail the detailing of Gollum as the best CGI ever, and he is quite impressive, but nevertheless obviously computer made. If not for the voicing of Serkins, Gollum would be long forgotten in a couple of weeks.
The CGI way too often shades the underdevelopment of the story. For example, when the heat of the battle actually gets tense and interesting, and when we see reinforcements come to aid in still hopelessly outnumbered forces, all of a sudden the tension is gone. It is all wrapped up in the same way the battle of Helms Deep in The Two Towers, leaving me only with a "Hey, what happened!?". CGI can enhance elements in a movie, but it can never be all there is, as it does in the LOTR trilogy, escalating by each movie.
Characters are quite two dimensional. No development takes place, and treating the royal son of Glóin as a slapstick-one-liner-sidekick only serves to disappoint me.
Best movie ever? Well, no! It is an Ok action flick, but with better pacing, better acting, and better story telling, this could have been THE movie. As for epic battles, I would prefer Spartacus anytime, without even a touch of CGI, but still extremely tense and impressive.
I feel robbed of an experience. In my book, this gets a 5 out of 10. In visuals it is astounding. In everything else it falls rather short of lots of other movies. Too bad. I really wanted to like this one.