"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"

Howard Shore may just win another Oscar for the score -- many sountrack music critics say the full score from all three parts is the best film music from the last ten years, maybe even of all time.

Got my vote -

Yes, Lightwizard, they still exist, and there were major complaints from the group.

watch the innuendo there cav...don't want to offend the more sensitive members.....

My daughter went today...me and my boys are going friday...squinney's taking a pass....

3 1/2 stars.
One star for every hour. Very good movie but has a poor star-to-running-time ratio. This has got to be one of the longest times I've ever sat in my life.
The first 2 1/2 hours were great. The last hour was torturous. I think the actors and film crew got so used to working together that they didn't want to go home or something so they just kept on shooting.

I have not seen the movie yet, I'm going tomorrow, but my daughter said the ending was anti climactic....I am reminded that even the book seemed to take a while to wind down and had the same problem.....after the ring drops into Mt. Doom that's sort of the end of the quest and then you have to spend a bunch of time on an uneventful walk home.

The ending of the book is a poignant coda of what happens to the beings in the world and that man became the dominant force. If one doesn't get what Tolkien was writing about other than the battles and the destruction of the ring, I don't know how to explain it. I didn't find the last approximately forty minutes anti-climactic at all but a revelation that this history seemed real and it was saddening to leave all these characters floating away into myth.

I understand what the end of the book is about.....but that doesn't change the fact that after all that action it could be construed as anti climactic, paricularly in a movie setting.....not everyone is brilliant and literary....

I was upset with the ending because it was incomplete - I was very pleased with Jackson in that he did not make the Hollywood blunder of skipping all the ending.

I'm confused that you say you were upset because of an incomplete ending -- I agreed with Richard Roeper that Jackson was brave in not cutting off the story without concluding with the tale of what happens to these characters. It follows the book closer than some other parts that were altered for cinematic continuity. If one isn't involved with the characters (the high point of the books), then they won't appreciate the ending. He ended "The Two Towers" with a battle that took place in the beginning of that book and worked well for a film. I don't see any way if he was to remain faithful to the material (albeit the aforementioned cinematic changes) that he would leave it at the triumph at Minas Tirath and didn't cover the metaphysical quality of the ending when, as I said before, the reality of the world is allowed to fade into a mythology with man as the triumphant (with some assistance from Elves, Hobbits, a Dwarf and a Wizard, of course). The book wasn't anti-climactic and neither was the film -- as far as cinematic art goes, this a incredibly passionate filmmaking.

One of the great things about the trilogy is that it is so good on so many levels and there are many different ways and levels to enjoy it on.

To some it is merely a great action/adventure story and it is, although I wouold agree with you lightwizard that there is much more to it than that. However if you react to it as an action /adventure story only, or mostly, I can still see how the ending could be anti climactic.

I can't wait to go see it tomorrow.

Just finished viewing the movie here...I am in awe...I cannot express in words how wonderful this picture is. The entire series has my vote for the best film adaption of a series. I am exhausted...from the emotions more than the 3+ hours of the film...Me and roomie would have stayed for the 4 o'clock showing if it were not bowling night.
I have yet to see Mystic River or any of the other films being tossed about for Oscar contenders...but it will be hard to beat "The Return of the King" in my eyes. I am wondering if a special Oscar might be given to this film, considering it's scope and exceptional brilliance. I hope that hollyweird can come to recognize what true cinematic magic has been created with these films.
I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I.

LW, one of my favorite parts of the trilogy is the meeting with Sauraman and worm tongue on the road home and the defeat of him and the humans in the Shire afterwards. It was a microcosm of the entire tale on a hobbit size. It can also be viewed (and I do) as a early defeat of the return of evil. If roots can not be sunk, then evil can not be established.

It saddens me that this part was removed but gladdens my heart that the seaward journey of those who live forever was was included, and had to be accounted for - otherwise, how does one explain the reign of man

I thought the cinematography was simply spectacular. The ending was amazing, and the story was adapted well to the screen. The entire trilogy is one of my all time favorite movie experiences.

I think no matter what happens the film will gain the stature of a classic and certainly the most passionately faithful adaptations of a fantasy novel.

The popcorn crowd that goes to the movie may not get involved with the characters and figure out the ending of the story. In its unique way, it has an enigmatic (almost like "2001") mindset that gets one thinking about how mythology is created.

on my way to the theater right now with 5 boys in tow.........

I honestly didn't like the second and third movies. The first was probably the best movie I've ever seen, I love adventure movies, but the second and third did nothing for me. I think the Return of the King was better than the second. But that's because I was never much on the books themselves, I always thought they paled in comparison to Terry Brook's Legacy of Shannara series. Plus they tried to appeal to x-game kind of attitudes with some of the things legolas did. But like I said, I never really liked the books that much, so it couldn't be helped.

I would have to research who ran the poll of internationl literary critics as to the best book of the 20th Century, but guess what won.

it was absolutely stunning. period. even a bunch of 7 to 9th grade boys kept quiet and watched it and for my son to stay quiet that long is an accomplishment.

It was great, and the ending was perfect.

I was just looking at last nights post and it is inadequate.

I found the movie to be magnificent in every respect and the ending had just the right touch of bittersweetness, realistic without being gushy, just like the book.

Now if they would do the hobbit in the same way, that book has never gotten a good cinematic treatment.