Weakest of the Three

Rating: 1/10 (20 December 2003)

If you make your way through the thousands of teens, Lord of the Rings junkies, and all the others who voted this movie a 10 for reasons other than a pure movie rating, you'll find that this is easily the weakest of the three films, unfortunately.
Pro: It was a good movie and for the most part, entertaining. The characters are well cast, the CGI is good in most places, the actors are good enough to save questionable editing and the scenery is still breathtaking. Great effects in battle... you'll see. Worth the $10 to see but not really one you want to see again without having the ability to skip portions.
Cons:
1) Way, way too long and poor editing choices. SPOILER --> The multiple endings was totally preposterous and belongs in the extended DVD version for fanzies. Remember, this is a movie, not the book. That time would have been much better spent on main characters that never surfaced, e.g. Saruman whom you never saw again and Sauron who was reduced to nothing more than a lighthouse. Oh yeah, I felt how dangerous he was. You will get restless at the end of the movie and will laugh your head off as to how awfully campy and forced it feels (especially when Frodo wakes up and the silly canned laughter begins...)
2) Too much time wasted at the beginning of the film as well. Mr. Jackson, pick your choices of what to develop. The love story and relationship between get any concern for the relationship. Too bad. Too much crap with Merry and Pippin... please, enough of the Hobbit details crap and focus on the main characters. Honestly, I didn't feel like I really cared so much about many of the characters because there was so much cutting between scenes and an incredible amount of time spent on Faramir and his going mad father, an odd area to place so much time.
3) Gimli and Legolas again reduced to nothing more than comic relief and incredibly cool and unrealistic CGI hero. There was practically no dialogue with Legolas at all. The reduction of these characters made me care less about Legolas and made the girl I went with happy the one or two time she saw him but wondered why he was nothing but occasional screen candy.
4) The movie felt very tired. Gollum again steals the show.
5) Some of the battle scenes were tired. A lot of quick cutaways and not as much feel of the one on one combat like you had in the first films. Also very, very poor display assistance of the dead -- it was as though they used up the budget for CGI and had this wave of green just end the huge number of Sauron's army in 10 seconds while the other characters hung out to chat. It was like a comic strip video game.
Honestly, I didn't feel like I really cared so much about the characters at the end and felt like the ring was reduced to nothing more than an overblown reason to have a quest. I truly think this movie suffers from wasted time at the beginning and end, too many battle scenes and too little time to continue to develop the great dialogue and character development of earlier movies.
My rating would place this film a very good 7.5 but that is as high as I'd go. Definitely bring some nourishment, wear comfy clothes and a watch...