Maddeningly Inconsistent Quality

Rating: 7/10 (29 December 2006)

If you have read the books, don't go see the movie. It is frustrating to have your own magical visions turned into comic strip characters.
However, the hobbits are delightfully done, endearing as bunnies. The makeup is realistic. The only catch is the hobbits seem to change size from human to half human size and back from scene to scene. The king of the elves is blond and magical looking, though again he seems to change size from scene to scene. The Dwarf is bang on, if a tad stereotyped.
Golem kept me guessing. Was he an actor, a puppet, computer animation? a mixture? In my imagination he would be a black otter-like slimy creature. This Golem was quite different, and riveting. In nearly all the scenes, except the one just before his death, he seemed quite real. I don't think I have ever seen a more lifelike "monster" in the movies before.
The backgrounds throughout the movie are spectacular and true to the spirit of the books.
A huge hunk of the movie is given over to mindless breastbeating prior to battle. Every pro-war cliché from every book and every movie and every politician is thrown in. The corny battle plot is stolen from Rocky.
The battle scene goes on for what feels like forever. It as boring as watching someone else play a video game. Corny cartoonish wart hogs, flying dragons and elephants swoop about doing dominance displays like some Kong movie. It even has Pac-Man ghosts and giant eagles. It just plain silly with one touch of extreme grossness -- catapulting decapitated heads into the castle.
In the books, the terror comes from fear of the unknown, from the dark. There is none of that in the movie. The danger is as explicit as a cowboy comic book.
The part 3 by itself does not properly explain why the ring corrupts, why it is so addictive, which is the key to the trilogy. The ring just seems to cause stomach upset, and a childish petulance leading to wanting to hold the ring.
The ending is revoltingly saccharine and clichéd. They laid the sweetness on so thick I felt like throwing up. The hobbits are lovable in themselves. They don't need the "laughing" ending like an episode of the Real McCoys, or a couple wandering hand in hand off into the sunset.