The Return of the King is awesome but NOT long enough

Gee it is so hard to satisfy us. My family and I went to see the third and last installment of the LOTR trilogy, The Return of the King. It was GREAT, but it could have been greater. I think somebody was too liberal with the scissors. It was not long enough... it was the shortest three hours of my life. *sigh*

There should have been more Arwen scenes - the part where she was reading a spell from the book to become mortal or some sort - at least give more indication the enormity of her actions instead of just a 5 minute scene with Lord Elron. They could have made the Theodon/Eowyn scenes shorter. Gave me the impression that those two superseded Arogorn/Arwen. I can't wait for the extended version to come out. I'm sure that will explain away some of the questions that emerged.

I love the part when Legolas brought down the Oliphant. Haha. That last shot was such a hero shot. The Tadah of it all, with him looking yonder and unscathed. You could almost here the drumroll when he gave that almost imperceptible lift of his jaw. *grin*. Definately a Hero shot. Then after that, Gimli's reaction: "But that only counts as one!" was a translation of the modern "You big show off!" *GRIN* That was so cute.

Orlando Bloom is too pretty for his own good in LOTR. All that Elven beauty and grace... sigh.

Oh and the CGI... ooh lala! The scenes with Minas Tirith was awesome!!! Then with Gandalf galloping madly winding up to the top - WOW! Whoever these animators were, they are darn good! Seriously, these people are truly Gifted. In the LOTR world, they would have been mages with amazing powers. Can you imagine if such a city truly existed? It boggles the mind is what it does! The Battle scene was awesome too. It is like throwing olive oil into the bonfire. Great kinetics and not to mention the myriads of models moving onto the stage, holy cow. Imagine how powerful a computer(s) and the time you would need to render all THAT. *Swoon*

Also, I think Gandalf should have used more magic. Being such a great wizard (and great fighter - I didn't know Ian McKellan can move like that), there should have been more fireballs and lightning and spells of every hue and power lighting up our screen. As such, we have to be content with the Lighthouse Effect from his wizened staff. Sheesh.

As dry and meandering Tolkien might be, he was very ahead of his time and that is the mark of a true genius and dreamer. As such, the movie, great as it is, it does not adequately showcase Tolkien's genius. But then, at least someone made a great movie from his stories and we got to see them. I think that counts as us being lucky in a certain sense and unlucky is another as after seeing the LOTR Trilogy, we thirst for more, more, more, more,more, more,more, more,more, more, MORE! *Orc-like mad laughter*