If you don't *really* love Frodo and Sam . . . (SPOILERS)

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2003)

Overall, I liked this movie. However, it was far from what I was hoping for. The most important thing to know is that, contrary to the title, this movie belongs to Frodo, Sam and Gollum. If anyone else is your favorite character, you'll be a little disappointed. I acknowledge that Peter Jackson did a wonderful job in bringing these cherished characters to the screen. But when some of the characters are barely there, it seems that some poor choices were made. I won't go into a lot of detail, but I'll try to cover the basics. First and foremost is the complete deletion of Saruman, of which everyone was already made aware. All we know of Saruman in this movie is that he's locked in his tower, and for some unexplained reason, has no more power. There is no mention at all of what happened to Grima. We barely see Faramir, except for a few scenes with his father. The romance between Faramir and Eowyn was nonexistent. David Wenham did a wonderful job with the little material he had. Hopefully, all of his scenes will be restored on the extended edition DVD so we can see some happiness for him after all of the horrible things he endured. Eowyn does have more to do in this movie than in Two Towers, especially during the Battle of Pelinnor Fields. However, she seemingly disappears at one point (since the whole Eowyn/Faramir romance was cut out) and is not seen again until near the end. Aragorn is in it more than Eowyn, but not by much. I expected much more with him, since he is the titular king. The same holds true for Legolas and Gimli, as they are off with Aragorn. Arwen is in a little bit more than in TTT, but not by much. Merry and Pippin needed more to do, although Pippin fares a lot better than Merry. Gandalf does have a decent amount of screen time. Elrond has a few scenes as well. A few of the characters shouldn't have bothered to show up, including Eomer, Galadriel and Celeborn. Their screen time was negligible. It was just disappointing to see the movie skewed so heavily toward Frodo, Sam and Gollum when there were so many other characters whose stories also needed to be told/wrapped up. The special effects were amazing and didn't overwhelm the story. I especially liked the army of the dead. The last thing I will mention is how the ending dragged on way too long. There are a couple of false endings, and I thought that the movie could have ended at least once without leaving the audience hanging. But it kept going. And going. We didn't need to see Sam get married. We didn't need to see Frodo and Sam after they returned to the Shire at all. Knowing they both lived and would be able to go home is enough. RotK is still definitely worth seeing, of course, but just be aware that Frodo and Sam will be taking up most of your time.