Tolkien is rolling over in his grave...

Rating: 3/10 (16 December 2003)

Well, the movie started off pretty slow. The middle was pretty slow. And the end was well... slow. There was not a single moment out of the entire three and a half hours that I felt any tension (except for the encounter with Shelob, but that's only because I'm terrified of spiders...) The seige of Minas Tirith reminded me of the battle of Hoth, but not nearly as dramatic. Jackson's device to build emotions is to have the characters stare at each other for a long period of time, sometimes in slow motion.
In the end, it seems to me that there were different people that worked on each of the three films. I thoroughly enjoyed the Fellowship of the Ring. It had everything - two battles in which you actually cared about the characters. With the extended DVD there was great character development. And there was a comedic value. The last two films have had none of the above. I can only say that I am glad the movie was made as some of the technical achievements during the filming are amazing. But that's it.