Great Trilogy ends 90% great, 10% weak

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2004)

If you love visual effects and Middle Earth fantasy, this film is excellent. Casting, soundtrack, effects is awesome (the first really set the stage for the GREATEST adventure). For me Ian McKellan (Gandalf), Viggo Mortensen (Aragon) and Andy Sirkis (Gollum) were exceptional! The visual effects are stunning and it's fun to see orcs get slashed. We all have to wait a year to see each film which builds up the drama so maybe I was a bit disappointed by the ending which was ddddrrraaaawwwwnnn out. Great movies don't need long closure. They simply stand on their own. The last 20 minutes could have been condensed to 5 minutes. Just end with the coronation and Gandalf departing. Watching the hobbits go home and Sam getting married is anti-climatic like seeing an old Scarlett O'Hara in a rebuilt Tara surrounded by grandchildren. Or seeing an arthritic Lawrence of Arabia riding around a jeep in the end (doesn't a horse look better?). I feel the first, the Fellowship of the Ring was the best since it took time to develop a plot and characters and special effects were still terrific. There was suspense to the first movie which was absent in the last. I would have rated this movie a 8.5 or 9 but the last 15 minutes is a 3. That explains my 8 overall. I still really like most of the movie: I was just left a bit flat by the ending.