Disappointingly predicable

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2003)

*** Mild spoilers contained ***
Well i waited, i prebooked my tickets and i queued for minutes but to be honest i dont think it was worth it! Dont get me wrong this is still a good film, but its not what i expected and its not what we've come to expect frm this otherwise-excellent franchise.
The film was beautiful to look at, but then what else could be expected from Jackson after the previous two movies? The fight scenes in this film were perhaps the best out of all three of the films, but even they seemed drawn out in parts and yet strangely short in others - for example when the ghost army turned up i expected to watch them kick som ass but you saw tem take on a handful of orks and then the battle was won! Very odd.
Where i felt the movie really lacked was in its plot. It was far too long for what actually happened within the film andit focussed entirely on 2 characters - Frodo and Aragorn. I know they're the leads and that the story is supposed to be focused on their lives but the film left Gimli with a handful of one-liners and the Ladies-Favourite Legolass with even less. His only role in the film appeared to be to look into the camera to distract from the fact that this film is actually qite disappionting.
The predictability of the end of the film is perhaps what left the bitterest taste in the mouth. From the first battle of this film it became apparent nobody important was to be killed off during this film and at no point did i fear for the lives of Frodo, Legolass or Gimli. To see the King of Rohan perish was actually relieving because after being out-numbered in almost a dozen battles and still surviving was becoming ridiculous. Even when aragorn looked back to his army during the final battle at the gates of Mordor, not once did i think his time had come. The happy ending that ensued left me feeling cheated by a potential classic.