Amazing - the perfect gift for a boy still lost in JRRT's pages

Rating: 10/10 (30 November 2003)

Absolutely fabulous. I really don't understand the spotlighted review's grudges against this movie.
Some points I thought I'd like to rebuke:

He noted that he went to the theater thoroughly excited at the prospect of watching a JRR Tolkien film of Lord of the Rings, when in fact the director's name is Peter Jackson. If he wanted the "true" Tolkien experience on celluloid, I hear there's going to be a projection of the unabridged text onto a classroom screen somewhere in Oregon.

He also noted that Return of the King is the longest of the trilogy. The Fellowship of the Ring is the longest - RotK is helped along by the hefty appendices, which we can't expect to see in the movies. Thus, Jackson's moving of Shelob to RotK is understandable when you realize that tTT actually has a ridiculous amount of stuff going on.

As for his misspelling of Arwen, it looked more like Eowyn. In which case, what movie did you see?

A "real" Tolkien fan would have questioned the inclusion of the elves at Helm's Deep, or Faramir's sudden detour to Osgiliath. Anyway, why bother when we've been presented with this wonderful gift?

And that about sums up my take on this movie. I've just recently seen the extended version of the Two Towers, and I absolutely applaud the editing that went into making this movie. While the deleted scenes are wonderful for background and such, the finished and final movie that hit theaters is the stronger for the editing. It takes a director and crew with vision and quite a bit of brass to make those decisions.
I will also note that one of the most compelling war scenes EVER is Aragorn and Theoden leading the charge down the ramp and into a see of enemies. In-cre-di-ble.
Here's to December 17th!