And also, Friend Equipoise, being long in itself is not a bad thing. Plenty of great movies were long. My favorite movie (Lawrence of Arabia) is longer than ROTK. It’s not the length I object to, it’s lack of substance to fill the length.
It was the fades-to-black.
doing it once, signals “this is the end.” When the story keeps going after multiple fades to black, the audience gets restless. (Hell, I got restless, and I wanted to see all that he showed.) There must have been a better way of showing all of those scenes - quick cut, something else? This way felt like I was being teased. (“It’s the end! No, not really, there’s still more! fooled you!” It was 2am. I don’t need that at 2am.)
As long as we’re spoiling the climax of the entire trilogy…
Gandalf, the greatest Wizard in Middle-earth, can’t take the Ring.
Galadriel, the greatest Elf in Middle-earth, can’t take the Ring.
Aragorn, the greatest Man in Middle-earth, can’t take the Ring.
Quiet, 3 1/2-foot-tall Frodo takes the Ring, carries it for the better part of a year, and against all odds and expectations makes it to the very edge of the fires in which it was forged. What a wimp.
Sam’s a near-paragon of virtues – courage, loyalty, humility --Frodo couldn’t have made it far without Sam, as he acknowledges. But Sam holds the Ring for a few minutes, hears it call to him, realizes he can’t carry it and gives it up – reluctantly.*
It is in the nature of the Ring that no one could have succeeded in the quest to destroy it without unforeseen intervention. The fact that Frodo knows this and perserveres anyway is what defines him as a hero.
*I know, I know, but we’re talking about the movies here.
Yeah - wasn’t the Ring saying “Keeeep meeee”?
Amarinth is right. It’s not the length of the ending so much as the way the movie misleads the viewer into thinking the movie is about to end before it actually does. For example the second-to-last scene when the boat sails into the sunset. They should have edited the scene to allow for a transition to the last scene. They could have cut back to Sam or they could have begun Frodo’s voiceover. Instead the scene just drifts into a climax… but wait there is some more!
Overall I liked the movie well enough but there are enough such flaws for me not to give it the highest grade.