Welcome to Epic Hell!

Rating: 9/10 (17 May 2020)

This movie takes off from the already all time high epic ceiling in part II. Still not touched level of epicity.
The acting, the best of the trilogy (probably because this one allowed for more variety of great emotional moments, I believe).
The dialogue and symbolism works even better than before.
The battles and action sequences, insane.
But I do feel there are some things that do not work, even if the enjoyment and emotional weight through the end is impossibly high.
1) The Eagles. I don't mind the "Deux Ex Machina". But contrary to the Ents of the sequel, here the Eagles help the good guys because... There is no explanation why they participate in favor of the heroes, and why in the end and not before. It's a minor thing, but it could've had an explanation, like the Ents.
2) The "Dead Mercenaries". All that subplot could've been longer, with more adventure and proving a bit more difficult than it was, giving time. I would've been fine with less fight in Tirith or less in the Mordor doors or else. I think it was too easy for how important and decisive ended up being in battle.
3) Last. Frodo's arc. We were made to believe he was the hero, because he was the only one strong minded enough to resist temptation. And we saw him struggling to do it, which makes it great. And yet, at the last moment, Frodo ends up being no better than the others, including Isildur. The Ring gets destroyed almost by pure luck. If Gollum isn't there to stop an invisible Frodo, the Rign would still be operating. I don't understand how this improves the story in any way. It's not more mature, because the struggle to not lose the battle against temptation made it mature. This, made it pointless even. Random.
Of course, after that we get the amazing scene with Frodo dying and the symbolysm is beautiful and I don't care anymore, but it does bother me a bit when I think about it.