close to fantastic (spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2003)

Firstly there's no denying that all of the films are great, and as a fan of the books it annoys me when other fans slate the movies JUST because they don't hold completely true to tolkien's books. I understand that people get bent because their favourite part of the book as been missed out (some of mine have), but ultimately nobody could have hoped for a better adaptation and most of the decisions to leave things out or change things have been for the good of the FILM.
My only major grime about the film was that i found some of the pacing of it weird (i had the same problem with two towers but that was sorted out in the extended version) for instance the apparently short time between pelennor fields and the black gate but as with towers i expect the extended to sort that out.
Sweet-ass-justice parts of the film include - when aragorn jumps off the boat, when the eagles attack the nazgul, eowyn and merry killing the witch king, gandalf gettin down and dirty on the walls of minas tirith and the charge of the frickin' rohirrim which i think is my favourite part (the way the orcs start fleeing just before they hit them is so cool)
To summarize - this is should totally get huge amounts of awards at the oscars because it/they blow other films out of the water on all accounts even though the extended versions are the definitive.
9/10