A few minor quibbles but I elsewise I liked the final installment alot – better than the Two Towers (which was in turn better than the Fellowship)…
I hope that a bit of Denethor using the Palantir of Minas Tyreth will turn up in the extended edition, and I wasn’t sure about the elephants – I guess that was a rewrite when they realised that the battle needed to be too long – or was it in the book? – but I what I want to know is what was the Saruman bit that they cut from this film (to Christopher Lee’s upset)? Was it just a couple of minutes of reaction at Isengard, or is there a whole (substantial) coda piece missing from the return to the Shire? I get the feeling – partly from some of the Hobbiton reaction) that they might have filmed the final showdown between Frodo et al and Saruman/Grima Wormtongue in the Shire, and that this will be reinserted making the film even longer (not that it seemed long) – in fact it actually didn’t seem as long in the cinema as the first one. Ah well, we shall see this time next year when the extended dvd is released…
…of course what with the hiatus that is Christmas I didn’t get my wish to rewatch the Two Towers before seeing the RotK… *grins*
Saruman
First, the entire scouring of The Shire was cut from the film altogether, you won’t get to see that at all. The Saruman section that was cut I believe is derived from the bit where Gandalf casts him out of Isenguard. Because there’s no scouring, I think that what happens is Wormtongue kills Saruman near the beginning of the film, along with an explanation of how the palintir ends up outside. It’s a 7 minute section, so it’s not a small cut by any means.