Long Of the Rings:  The Return of the Long

Movie Review By Jeff Archipley

Not enough o's in loooooooooooonnnnnnngg. It is difficult to criticize Peter Jackson's final installment of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic masterpiece but I'm going to do so anyway. In short, which is what I wish the movie had been, this visually stunning and cinematically groundbreaking work finally

 

concludes with Frodo (Elijah Wood) battling his inner demons, which also happen to be outer demons in the form of wraiths riding giant flying stegosauruses and carrying the ring of rings into the heart of Mt. Doom where it will be destroyed forever ending the evil reign of the eye in the sky, the Goodyear Sauron. Meanwhile, Aragorn (Viggo Mortgensen) and Gandalf (Ian MacKellan) and the rest of the Fellowship members battle across middle earth with swords and shaleighley's kicking the crap out of bad guys. Will Frodo finally make it? Will the ring be destroyed? I don't know, because the movie is so long I'm still sitting in the theater watching it! 

 

Don't get me wrong, it's very long. The problem could have been solved by taking one of the twenty five distinct endings in the last forty five minutes and picking one....ring is destroyed.....Aragorn is King....Hobbits hang out drinking ale dancing the tarantella on tables.....Hobbits say goodbye.....boat goes to never never land.....Sam goes back to the shire kicks out a couple babies.....Arch falls asleep in his popcorn. This Tour de Rings should have been released in stages. If Einstein had seen this film it would have changed his theories on space and time.

 

I loved the movie, as I am one of those fans that has read the book and know the complexity of such an epic tale. And while Peter Jackson did remain true to the essence of the film, not an easy task, if the damn thing had been shorter I would place it among the very best movies ever created. But no. It now falls into some uber category of lengthy films... Dances with Elves or Gone With the Ring.  I highly recommend this film. Everyone should see it. But just make sure you don't have anything on the calendar for the rest of your life.

Conclusion: Brilliant but, pick an ending and let me get back to doing nothing.

 

 

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