Thoughts on the ending of The Return of the King

Im wondering what people thought of the ending to ROTK. I personally loved it and it was my favorite part of the film but Ive heard others say it was to long and dragged out. Any thoughts?

I had no problems with the ending, in fact it was the only part of the movie I felt that worked. The rest had pacing issues.

I loved ROTK, I thought it was more amazing than the previous two. The ending I did think was a bit odd. I still liked it, and I'm sure the fact that my bladder was about to explode during the last 45 minutes had some bearing on what I'm about to say, but I think they should have done the varying scene changes during that last 45 minutes with anything other than fade to black, and fade from black. Traditionally, and historically that's the theatrical way to signify the ending of the film. I'm sure Director Peter Jackson was going for an artistic and emotional flare by using them, but by using the fade to and from black it did seem like the movie was going to end 5 or 6 different times. Don't worry, I'm still a fan, and that's the only problem I had with the film (which is minor).

- Nachtkriechen

I feel the complete opposite of Justins thoughts. I thought the overall pacing of the film was probably the best out all three movies. It was the ending that I thought was a little off beat. It did drag out for a bit and basically everthing Nachtkriechen said, with exception to the bladder problem, is exactly how I felt. Granted, there were a lot of lose ends to tie up in the ending of the tale. However, that whole fade to black thing kept fooling me, too. Regardless of that issue, it was still the best film of 2003, in my opinion.

;)

I'm with Justin and Olen on this one--there were a few things that didn't need to be in the movie, but the ending was fine by me. After all, there were a lot of characters, and it was nice to see the movie focus on the hobbits again (after all that thunder about the other characters).

With the exception of Jackson's lingering a bit longer than Tolkien did on Sam's return to the Shire, the ending follows everything in the final book of the trilogy. The movie does appear to end several times before it actually does, but that's the way Tolkien intended it. As Eddie says, it's a monumental story with a multitude of characters, and it has to be ended appropriately for all of them, eventually getting back to where it started, with the hobbits.

John