Very nicely done, too bad they changed the story

Rating: 8/10 (31 August 2008)

The last episode of LoTR is also the one with the greatest battles, I think never before in the history of cinema such great armies were rendered by computer animations - and successfully! The movies has some great features which are all worth while seeing.
For me personally, the major annoyance of the whole series - which also takes away the logic - is the fact that they changed the way the siege of Minas Tirith is lifted.
*SPOILER* Now in the BOOK, Aragorn summons the undead army at the stone of Erech. The undead don't have any physical form but the mere fear they spread among the Umbar pirate ships cause the pirates to jump overboard. The undead are then freed form their vow by Aragorn and finally find peace.
Aragorn then takes the ships and then proceeds to collect the garrisons from the Gondorian cities west of Minas Tirith who have stayed behind to fight the pirates (yes, Gondor isn't just Minas Tirith). He then sails to the battlefield, where they help the Rohirrim who are vastly outnumbered. The Mordor armies flee in terror, as they expected the ships to bring allies, not fierce foes from Gondor. The coming of the ships is also accompanied by a west wind (no doubt symbolic for the return of the kings of Númenor), which blows away the foul fumes from Sauron/Mordor, thus causing the orcs on the battlefield (who hate sunlight) to flee.
Now in the MOVIE, the undead accompany Aragorn all the way to Minas Tirith and actually fight with the armies of Mordor. If Aragorn would have collected the undead army a few days earlier, no man from Gondor or Rohan would have died at all and the heroism they showed and pain they suffered unnecessary. The undead would easily have defeated Sauron's forces on their own. In the movie, they can kill orcs and even trolls but simply can't be killed themselves, which effectively makes them an invulnerable army.
This was a major disappointment, I see no reason why this was changed in such an illogical way.