The Lord Of The Fellowship’s Ring, or King,… or Something.

Yep, I think The Return Of The King is worth the 11 academy award nominations. Interesting to note that there were no acting awards in that 11. Smeagol/Gollum should have got a best supporting actor award – blast those tricksy hobbitses for rigging the voting.
It was our first look at those new ‘La Premiere’ seats at the cinemas. It’s exactly the same experience as walking into the Qantas Club and hopping onto the business class airline seats: a nice lounge with a few morsels to nibble, and then a personal escort to your double-sized seats up in the classy part of the establishment, while you look down your noses at the poor unfortunates forced to endure the ordinary seats below. I don’t know what the cost difference is, (we were treated by the social club at work) but it certainly makes for a new experience at the movies. And with a 3 and a half hour movie ahead of you, you probably need every bit of extra support you can get, just to get through.
It’s certainly an exhausting experience. It’s all done on a breathtaking scale, with a great many things being treated harshly by other things.
The best thing of all is that it’s a satisfying ending. The story stampedes along throughout the three movies, and finally, finally resolves itself with a thud at the end. All the loose threads tied together. Everyone getting what they deserve. And that’s the way Tolkien planned it – it’s a coherent story which covers three books, not a series of book which ‘expands the original vision’.
They don’t make them like that any more. Shame the Matrix couldn’t resolve itself as happily, by all accounts (I’ll have to wait for the DVD, now, it seems). And the only other big trilogy yet to be completed – the Star Wars Prequel – is probably going to be a bunch of battle scenes with a whole lot of obligatory loose ends being tied together in time for Episode 4 (still a year to go before it’s released? Sheesh). Luke has to be born, Obi Wan need to be disgraced, Anakin needs to buy a face mask and get a dose of athsma… you get the idea.