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Film treatment of The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings. It is a novel I have read and re-read many times with deep enjoyment, often finding new perspectives on the narrative. I awaited the film versions with great anticipation.
The Return of the King
I give it a B overall; a good execution, but the departures from the book were at times incomprehensible, especially in as much as they diminish the humanity of some of the major characters.
Better than the second film, though, in that regard, as I found to be worse in The Two Towers the side track of Aragorn going over a cliff on the way to Helm's Deep, how the ents were enticed into attacking Isengard, and the appearance of elves rather than rangers just prior to the battle at Helm's Deep (and what happened to them in the third film - bad continuity there). Not to mention the treatment of Legoloas skateboarding down the stair, firing arrows all the way (which was just juvenile direction), or Aragorn kicking in frustration the ashes of the burned orcs (juvenile characterization).
As for missing the scouring of the Shire, more would have to be done with Saruman for that part of the tale to be explicable, but the way they _did_ end up handling the return to the shire was consequently anticlimactic, and perhaps only served to make it clear to viewers unfamiliar with the original that there would be no sequel.
Perhaps the TV miniseries format would allow these flaws to be avoided.