The DVD will be better

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2003)

Don't get me wrong, RoTK was 3.5 hours of rollicking good fun, and a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. On that note, it's also a better trilogy conclusion than Return of the Jedi, The Godfather Part III, or the next Star Wars movie (which none of us have to see to know it will be disappointing).
Some favorite moments for me: Theoden's inspiring battlefield leadership; Legolas taking out an oliphant single-handed (and Gimli's perfect response); Eowyn and Merry, of all people, taking down Sauron's right-hand Nazgul, the Witch King; the wonderfully drawn-out denoument, which had me in tears for nearly a half hour; and the unflagging heroism of all the hobbits, who really come into their own in this movie, ESPECIALLY Sam! I was left thinking Mr. Gamgee would have stared down Sauron himself if he'd had too. Next time I need a gardener, I know who I'm calling.
But I still think the extended version of the movie we'll see in about a year on DVD will be a much better film. Based on Jackson's commentaries on the two previous extended DVDs, he sacrifices character for plot in the theatrical releases. Unfortunately, that strategy costs him dearly in RoTK.

I know everyone's going on about how the battle at Minis Tirith makes Helm's Deep seem like a schoolyard shoving match. But I found myself looking at my watch during the MT fight. I never did that during Helm's Deep. You know why? I CARED about the people at Helm's Deep. In The Two Towers, Jackson was brilliant at making us care about the people of Rohan--remember the mother reunited with her two children? The old men and boys being outfitted for war? The fear on their faces? We don't get to see any Gondorians the same way. We're also NOT shown or told, as clearly as it was for Rohan, how hopeless this battle is for Gondor.
As spectacular as the Minis Tirith battle is, it eventually becomes just another example of Hollywood special effects porn. If I'd wanted that, I would have just rented Bad Boys II. I don't know if Jackson will address this problem in the extended version, but I hope so.
One other big problem, which I'm certain will be addressed on the DVD: Eowyn and Faramir. In the Two Towers, Jackson introduced and really built up the importance of these very appealing characters. They get short shrift in RoTK.
Eowyn gets a two-sentence brush-off from Aragorn--not much payoff for all that romantic tension built up in the previous movie. It's a good thing Mortensen is so talented and delivered the dialogue with such angst, or he would have come off like Seinfeld's George delivering a Middle Earth version of the "it's-not-you-it's-me" line.
David Wenham (Faramir), meanwhile, has the unenviable task of spending most of the movie doing a pretty good impression of a corpse. I know there were a lot of characters' stories to finish off, but given their importance in TT, it was disappointing to see how little these two fascinating characters mattered in RoTK. Jackson should have trimmed the MT battle a little and given us more of these two very human stories.
Still, it's a very good if not great film, well worth seeing. The REAL movie, however, won't be out for nearly a year.