Worst possible

Rating: 1/10 (25 December 2004)

While the first two films of the trilogy where very good in my opinion, the third one is a complete catastrophe, in every aspect one can think of. Its attitude towards the book (and without the book, no one would have heard of Peter Jackson, except few admirers) moves between insult to ignorance - almost no text from the original survives, and the characters and scenes are terribly distorted. Even the climax scene is changed from the genius of Tolkien to a bad Holiwoodic cliché. The most disastrous is what the movie does to the character of Frodo, which, from the original tragic hero, becomes a stupid and gullible fellow, which does nothing (expect stupid things). The "go home Sam" scene, should be candidate to one of the worse movie scenes ever. Other characters, such as Denethor, Faramir, Aragorn, Theoden or Elrond, are either inconsistent, irrational, stupid, badly acted, or all of the above. In addition, unlike the beautiful design of the middle-earth in general in the first movie, or of Rohan in second, there is nothing left from Gondor, except one picture of Minas-Tirith and few fires. It amazes me that not only this film is considered "excellent" by many viewers, but that it is considered the best of the three.