Eric Spratling’s review below should be taken with a grain of salt, in that he isn’t enthused about the first two films either. We all have our quibbles, but if you are inclined towards liking the first two films you’ll probably like this one even more.

What can I find in the way of reviews for you?

I’ll start with a negative one so that Eric won’t feel lonely. Stephen Whitty of the New Jersey Star-Ledger gripes that it’s a racist movie. Actually, he has a thin point. While reading The Two Towers, I noticed that the bad guys joining Sauron were described as having “black faces” and came from a land that had oliphaunts (elephants). But in the movie version, these same guys are white. In any case, there are enough white bad guys and monsters amongst the enemy that it doesn’t seem a fair complaint. And as Whitty observes, the only way to defuse complaints about “the sea of white faces” is to put in token black guys who would seem forcibly out of place, especially compared to the source material.

Ebert is his normal bitchy self in his review of “Return of the King”, leveling complaints about it that could be equally aimed at all films that aren’t Cannes-worthy unwatchable crap and picking up on the most minor of quibbles to make himself look more observant. Be warned, he also spoils a good deal of the plot details. Again, Ebert’s review is a grain of salt thing. He moans about how much better old movies were because they weren’t spectacles and cites of all things “Apocalypse Now,” a tediously unpleasant drug trippy film I once forced myself to sit through just because so many seem to like it.

Chuck Colson assesses the movie as to how it reflects the Catholicism of Tolkein, and he offers a number of links you may find informative at the end of it. Ross Mackenzie also analyzes the meaning of the books.

But atheist FlickFilosopher is also exultant. Simply put: Best. Film. Ever. Her money quote:

Jackson has proved to us, with the first two films, that he knows what he’s doing, and that only by, like, throwing in some Ewoks at the Battle of Pelennor Fields could he screw this up…

For a pantload of reviews, check out the Tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes. With over 100 reviews in, the movie stands at 97% Approval on the Tomatometer!

We used to have a forum on the Fuzzball Forum just for movie discussions. Now you can do it in the main forum, but I’m setting up two threads. NEVER MIND – THIS LINK IS DEAD –One is for spoilers and the NEVER MIND – THIS LINK IS DEAD –other one is spoiler-free for those who haven’t seen it. I’m disabling the comments field below so that the discussion is taken there.

Speaking of which, I’ll see a matinee of Return of the King tomorrow and have a review for both of you who won’t have seen it by then.