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Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2003)

Well, Peter Jackson has done it again - made a movie where I felt a little put out by the omissions and gratuitous additions, and had initial difficulties dealing with some of his choices as a director, especially one or two instances of cheesy effects. I felt it rather obvious where scenes had been shortened or cut out entirely, and I find the rumour that over an hour of footage was removed from the final cut entirely believable.
I still hold true to the idea that, as there are six books, six movies would have been ideal and would have allowed enough screen time to avoid cutting out any of the material - HOWEVER - I remember feeling this way about the first two movies, and now that I have viewed them countless times I love them dearly. Furthermore, some things that I had thought erroneous previously are actually contained in the books, as I discovered afterwards upon close scrutiny. Judging by that, I have to stand behind Peter Jackson as having done an immense amount of research, almost to the point where he is more of an authority than I. I have great respect for this man, and I have no doubt that Return of the King will garner several Oscars - perhaps not exclusively for the film itself, but for the series as a whole, which has yet to be officially recognized by the Academy - surely they are waiting to award everything to the concluding film.