LogFAQs > #971226999

rexcrk posted...

Also always so surprised at how many people like Return of the King the best out of LotR. Maybe its the book fan in me but the liberties the movie took from that portion of the book irk me so much, I have to drop it to third place. Still a great movie, but easily the least good.
But I also have sneaking suspicions that the people who like it best are more fans of action than characters, which I can understand. RotK has awesome battles.

I don't agree with many of the liberties taken, and a couple still really irk me (like Gandalf treating Pippin's offer of service to to Denethor as a joke / annoyance), but overall I look past them because the movie still works very well on its own as an adaptation. Most importantly, it just has too many heavy-hitting moments - the Ride of the Rohirrim, "but I can carry you," and "you bow to no one" - that get me in the feels every time. Plus it's so rare for a saga like this to not trip at the finish line that it deserves extra points for that (I never minded the 'ending that never ended,' in fact I liked it; I've always personally lamented that too many otherwise-good stories rush through the conclusion).