I was just killing time reading on Wikipedia, when I happened upon the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King page. In the criticism section, it said that some critics complained about the conclusion being too long. Well, too bad, it’s part of the story. Whenever I read books, I expect a proper conclusion. I almost always get one. Movies, however, like to have the climax, then have either a 1 minute conclusion or shorter. To me, this is an incomplete story. It’s my major criticism of movies. A conclusion is supposed to provide closure. While some movies do have proper closure, in which we find out what happens with the bad guys or see what the good guys are going to do next, many end without any information about what happens next in their lives. Back to LotR:RotK. If it didn’t have the proper conclusion that it does, it would not be complete, and would not be faithful to the book. For the most part, Lord of the Rings is very faithful to the book. If it didn’t have that conclusion, it would have been very, very disappointing. Honestly, the conclusion was one of the most emotional things I have ever seen in a movie.
I think most critics want all action, no story. And I want closure in stories.