Staggering yet flawed

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2003)

I just saw ROTK last night, and I must admit that it was a truly awesome spectacle. I enjoyed the first two films very much, but this film exceeded my expectations. Of course, there are those who will read my positive comments and just assume I am another "fanboy" with too much internet access and too little human interaction. But let me assure you that this film is completely worth it. I am not a fanboy, just merely a fan of cinema. I spent all four of my college years immersed in the film department at the University of Buffalo, and considered my self one of the cinema elite, someone who would never, ever watch something as Big Hollywood as LOTR (or go on to join the military and not completely use his film degree, but that is another story). ROTK is sheer spectacle, a technological achievement that will be unsurpassed for years to come. To miss it in a theater would be a crime. Battle scenes sprawl and swirl with such grandiose yet individual vitality. The massive armies move with such unique detail. that your eye won't let your mind agree that they are CGI. Moments of pure emotion, dread, fear, and pride swell like rising waves on the screen and throughout the audience. I'm sure there will be someone on here saying "the acting was weak", "they didnt stay true to the source material", or some other gripe. Yet, the fact is they still went to see it opening weekend, and were, on some level, undeniably thrilled. Fellow cineasts, ROTK is a MOVIE, not a film. It is here to entertain, maybe expand thoughts a little, but nothing more. Simply sit back and enjoy. You don't see all these whiny postings on here when hollywood adapts Shakespeare wrong do ya'? And folks, I've read Tolkien, and he's no Shakespeare, no Chaucer, no Faulkner, no Melville, etc....His poetry literally hurts, his narrative was questionable, and his style was erratic at best. But what he did have was an unsurpassed imagination, creating an entire world out of his own fertile mindscape. And thats what these films have; the cinematic equivalent of that great imagination. So fanboys, I ask you to quit the inevitable griping and enjoy this final installment; you may never see two men's imagination so vividly poured onto screen again. For the casual filmgoer, prepare to be completely enthralled.