We finally got to the see the last installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy this past Friday night. It does not disappoint. I’m really impressed with what Peter Jackson and his crew did — they made three really great movies, and they kept the spirit of the work and the author. I would have to think that if he were alive JRR Tolkein would be pleased with what Jackson has done.

Quite a few people have said that the trilogy is the salvation of modern cinema. That’s quite a label. The movies were fantastic, and (I’ll say it again) Jackson did a nearly perfect job recreating Tolkein’s world. But Jackson had a huge advantage over the average (or even above-average) filmmaker — the perfect story was already written. It was just up to Jackson to not screw up the telling of that story. We haven’t seen the final Matrix movie, but we’ve heard enough bad things about it that we can wait. The Wachowski brothers began the trilogy as geniuses, but they couldn’t finish the story. The movies are inventive, and at time brilliant, but in the end, they couldn’t bring it together. Peter Jackson didn’t have to worry about bringing things to the proper conclusion — he just had to get us there.

What’s odd is that I feel like I have to constantly say that Jackson is a brilliant filmmaker, as if I didn’t like ROTK, or the trilogy. The trilogy was fantastic, and I hope that Jackson is making a film of The Hobbit. He’s gotten so involved with the story (and with Tolkein) that I don’t think he could do a bad job. But I’ll be interested to see what Jackson can do with any other movie — something that isn’t a work of genius to begin with. If I’m Peter Jackson, I’d hang up my lense now and go out on top. Anything else would be a disappointment.

Posted on 28 December 2003