Terrifically wonderful. Battle of Pellenor Fields is awesome.

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2003)

WARNING: THERE BE MANY SPOILERS HERE!!!

There aren't really many films that come along and blow you away, both visually and narratively. But the Lord of the Rings trilogy is by far the most visually and narratively mind-blowing film ever seen by the human eye. Perfectly satisfying, and the most awesome trilogy ever comes to a wonderful close. Minas Tirith is besieged. This is the major set peice of the film. Trust me, once you see this scene, you'll realise that just seeing half of this battle would be worth twice the price of admission. It's bigger than Helm's Deep. I don't think it's quite as intimate or emotional as Helm's Deep was, but it's definitely bigger in scale and action. It is the biggest battle scene that has ever been put on film, and it doesn't try to hide that fact. It just comes full force and doesn't hold back. There's not really any build up to it, it just starts, but I'm glad about that, because trying to put in a build up to it would just be a waste of time, because the movie is already full of great stuff, and important things that are straight from the book.
So, yeah, the Battle of Pellenor Fields is by far the biggest thing in the trilogy, and it really sells the climax of the trilogy. I couldn't have been happier with it.
The rest of the film is mostly very faithful to the book as well. The biggest is perhaps the whole Frodo separating from Sam at Cirith Ungol, but that moment when he tells Sam to go home is just so emotionally powerful, that it's worth deviating from the book to see. The destruction of the Ring is in fact the climax of the trilogy. It's handled mostly well. I wasn't sure how they were going to show the "end of evil", so to say, in Middle-Earth, and the concept of what happens is rather cheesy, but the execution was done very well, and it came off pretty good. The huge ground-collapsing thing was rather cliche, but it was done well, so it fit nicely. The Eagles coming was perfect, and really brought that moment from the books to life in an awesome away!
Overall, the movie was almost perfect, but, of course, nothing is perfect. The absence of Saruman, and the confrontation of the Witch King by Gandalf was sorely missed by me, but i can see why they wouldn't fit into the theatrical cut. The extended edition should be a very big treat, and I can't wait to see it. It seems so far away!
My ratings out of 10:
FOTR: 9.9 TTT: 9.8 ROTK: 10
For anybody who hasn't seen RotK yet: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!?