Too good for words

Rating: 10/10 (30 November 2005)

Well, this is truly a magnificent film beyond all others. The screenplay is excellent; the music emotional where it matters, masterfully blasting when the fighting is at its best, and soothing in many places; and the Special effects breathtaking, especially, it must be said, Gollum and the mÃ»makil. Certain liberties are taken with the books that will be disliked by purists but this does not exactly detract from an excellent film - I think all would agree that, for once, we cannot say 'They could have extended the time the film goes on for to add in (INSERT SCENE),' and if we did say that then there's always the even better extended edition.
As I mentioned, Gollum is masterfully created and the role of Serkis was amazing. The CG character created was one that was believable, won sympathy even when you knew he deserved none, and had a raw sense of being lost that man characters don't have.
The lavish detail was immense, if you've read the 'Art of the RotK' you'll know that in fact they made so much detail meticulously in the workshops, including such things as an orc brazier in Cirith Ungol - that gets all of about 2 seconds screen time obscured by a mass of fighting orcs - and this in itself shows a certain dedication to the film. Jackson was not in this for money, creating a film with a paltry budget to be forgotten in a week or two - he wanted his films to be special and boy has he succeeded.
My only negative on this is that the end is toooo long. It is, hypothetically speaking, the end of an 11 hour epic but for people in the cinema 30 minutes of weddings, celebration, travelling home and reunions is too much to bear, especially after the first 3 hours consisted of battles of such magnitude. However, if you've read the book, you'll think it was too short and they needed the Scouring of the Shire...
However, the positives outweigh the negatives and overall this film deserves a place at the very pinnacle of film history.