The End of the Third Age...

...and the end of an era. Ok, what a geek, but I'm a bit melancholy. The extended edition of Return of the King comes out today, with an extra hour of footage, which is cool, but leaves me with nothing to look forward to (except maybe The Hobbit, but that's a big if). I've always loved Tolkien, dearth of strong female characters notwithstanding, and I think Peter Jackson et al. did an amazing job with the film adaptations. Of course, there are exceptions ... I'd like to personally hunt down and slap whoever decided to have Denethor go over the edge of Minas Tirith in a blaze of glory (well, just a blaze really). Same goes for Legolas' surfer dude antics. I understood about Tom Bombadil, but still think they should have tackled the Scouring of the Shire. The Ents weren't quite right, and Faramir wasn't right at all. I could sit and nitpick all day, but on the other hand we have the spectacular set/costume design and cinematography, the lighting of the beacons, the score, just about everything at Bag End and Edoras, an almost flawless cast, the Balrog and Gollum, and the fact that they didn't screw up the end. I enjoyed the films thoroughly, and I'm sad there's no more to come. At least I'll finally get to find out what happened to the horses.