More of the same

Rating: 4/10 (19 June 2006)

This movie is basically just more of the last hour of The Two Towers -- lots of CGI enhanced action with a lot of characters that have the same name as characters in Tolkien's books. One of the best characters, Gollum/Smeagol in The Two Towers is largely muted in this installation. In fact, Peter Jackson seemed to give up on character development altogether for the third film. Which is fine if one is only going in for a 90 minute film that doesn't have anything to do with one of the great novels of the 20th century. Unfortunately, The Return of the King doesn't fit that paradigm. My disappointment is only increased due to the fact that Fellowship of the Ring promised great things to come.