Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

For all of the long drawn out battles and many endings the things that were missing were to me more important. The way Faramir (David Wenham) and Eowyn (Miranda Otto) meet, the way Faramir convinces Eowyn that there is more to life than preparing for death, and the way they fall in love were all worthy of mention. Sadly all that came of that was a quick hint that they were together (not even clear if they married like in the book).

The Scouring of the Shire to some fans of the LotR was sorely missed. Its absence was understandable, though. It would have taken far too long too set up and added an unreasonable amount of time to yet another ending of the movie.

Because of that omission Saruman's (Christopher Lee) demise had to be rewritten. He no longer was relevant except for possibly a 1/2 second shot of him throwing the Palantir at the fellowship outside of the flooded Isengard. Instead the Palantir was simply found and Saruman was not in the final movie (a point of new tension between Christopher Lee and Peter Jackson which led Lee to skip any publicity appearances for the final movie.)

The battle scenes were loooonnngg...but that is what they were in the book. There was a good reason for that also. These are the culminating battles between evil and good in the war for the absolute demise of one or the other. The scenes were well done, well organized and as easy to follow as the book.

Again gollum was fun to watch.

For all of the things that would normall annoy me this movie made them fit and the books also made them fit well into the movie. Like the other movies this one was visually pleasing. The battle scenes were visually awesome. The scenery was also awesome. The photography, the sound, the editing...and on and on.

This movie deserved all of the Oscars it won.
Grade: A+