One Tolkien Fan's Observations

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2003)

To quote from my Two Towers review:
"TLOTR is the greatest work of fiction of the twentieth century and ranks highly among the greatest literary works of all time. PJ's movies, however, are not the greatest films of all time. As movies, they're very good, but not excellent. They can't be excellent because they're based on a thousand-page book with too many characters and events to allow for much time to be spent developing any single character or plotline onscreen. The real worth of the films, is that they serve to disseminate Tolkien's message (albeit in abridged form) to many, and hopefully inspire some significant number of people to read the book for themselves."
ROTK, like TTT, is very good, but not excellent. Peter Jackson did a commendable job with ROTK and indeed with the entire trilogy, staying largely true to Tolkien's themes, and providing me with a visual treat that I will remember for a long time.
PJ did a good job with the relationship between Faramir and his father, Denethor. The emotions come through pretty clearly and evoked a sympathetic response from the non-Tolkien fans in the audience. We don't quite get closure on Faramir, though; after Denethor dies, we don't see much of him again.
I loved the visuals during the siege of Minas Tirith. Great action all the way through, from catapults, to cavalry charges, to orc morale breaking. Great scene with Theoden marshaling his riders for his last charge. Forth Eorlingas! (I was waiting for that line.) But as good as the visuals of the siege were, I think PJ should have focused a bit more on emotions, determination, and the will to endure during the siege, as that's the real conflict vs. Sauron. In that light, the Nazgul could have been portrayed as sapping the will to fight, not as air support, giving Gandalf a natural opportunity to develop his character by restoring morale, instead of whacking orcs on the head with his staff.
The long time spent on the siege means there isn't much time for Frodo and Sam's journey into Morder. PJ chose to develop Gollum with the early Smeagol sequence, which is fine, but I think it would have been more time-efficient to do it as flashbacks illustrating how Gollum is torn between good and evil.
The fight against Shelob shows the same pattern as the siege. Great action, but too much of it, and not enough focus on character. The battle against Shelob should be fought and won as a battle of wills. The spirit of the hobbits, small but indomitable, amplified by the phial of Galadriel, defeats Shelob - not their swordplay.
Having spent so much time on action sequences, there's not enough left for the journey to Mordor. Frodo and Sam appear to make the dash to Mount Doom in just a day, while Sauron's lighthouse-style Eye is turned to the North. There should have been plenty of time for Sam's trial by the ring, and a lengthy journey to Mt. Doom over several days, showing Frodo increasingly tormented and at the end of his strength. This would have provided fertile ground for character development and for Sam's "But I can carry you, Mr Frodo" scene, which was well done despite the pacing problem.
The Arwen-Aragorn-Eowyn triangle is not resolved, and we don't get emotional closure. After the significant time spent developing the Aragorn-Eowyn relationship in TTT, this feels jarring.
The ending suffers from trying to show too many things, none of which are fully developed. PJ should have focused on just one epilogue, and done that properly. In my view, the key one is Frodo's - Good has triumphed but at a great cost, and Frodo is wounded in body as well is in spirit. We don't need to see the hobbits in the Green Dragon, we don't need to see Sam & Rosie. What we need to see is how the ring has hurt Frodo - he doesn't fit in, he's morose, he doesn't get to enjoy the fruits of his labors, eventually departing - with Biblo - at the Grey Havens, a suitable backdrop for a philosophical musing by Gandalf to sum up the entire trilogy.
Hopefully the extended edition will fill in some of the holes. Nevertheless, a worthy and difficult achievement by Peter Jackson, a very good film, and a fine introduction to Tolkien's works. I hear PJ might be doing "The Hobbit". I eagerly await that, as long as none of the dwarves call anyone "Laddie". :-)