OK - Great visuals, but disappointing (spoiler)

Rating: 10/10 (31 December 2003)

I actually enjoyed much of ROTK, but I found it lacking in some major ways, especially compared to the first two installments of the LOTR trilogy.
1) I found the whole scene in which Eowyn and Merry defeat the Lord of the Nazgul to be rather flat, which is in stark contrast to the portrayal of this scene in the book - it just lacked the high drama found in the book's depiction.
2) Omitting the Houses of the Healing left unanswered the question as to what happened to Eowyn's passion for Aragorn - my wife, who has never read the books, would've been really confused had I not been there as a second source to explain how Eowyn fell in love with Faramir.
3) Leaving out the Scouring of the Shire made for a complete letdown at the end of the movie. This for me is the gravest mistake of the entire movie trilogy. The Scouring of the Shire in the book summarizes the whole moral of the story, and shows that The Travelers (i.e., Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin) had learned to stand on their own two Hobbit-feet, and weren't just coat-tail riders.
I hope it's Jackson's intent to include (2) and (3) from above in the extended video when it gets released. Otherwise, I will believe that, in the very end of the story, Jackson failed to deliver the whole goods as promised.