This used to be one of my favorite trilogies ever but I revisited them recently and I found that they are boring, meandering, drawn out and self-indulgent.
This is a 10+ hour series that consists of endless roaming and travelling. The plot is stretched across three movies and nothing really "new" or interesting happens other than the fellowship travelling across Middle Earth and escaping the clutches of the "enemy." They travel, they fight, some characters live and some characters die. Armies clash, and clash again. Sméagol is good, smeagol is bad. Will he or won't he? How long did they draw this out? Did anyone really think he was going to turn out good? There are sequences that go on endlessly. Like Shelob. How long is that scene? Does PJ have to stretch out EVERY scene? There is so little narrative and plot that moments and scenes in this move are always stretched to the extreme. He also repeatedly employs the same framing device: the camera pushes in on an actor and then that actor narrates a scene or explains the plot. This happens with Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel, Elrond, Faramir. Wash, rinse, repeat. If you watch the extended editions, this is even more egregious and almost impossible to get through. I think by the time I got to ROTK, the constant use of this same "device" just broke me. And then I had to sit through yet another battle of clashing CGI armies. And then yet another drawn out fight between Sam, Frodo and Sméagol for possession of the ring. Endless slow mo, endless fighting back and forth, push ins on Frodo's struggle with the power of the ring. Etc etc. I don't see any way this trilogy can justify its ultimate running time.
