Having now seen all three installments of The Lord of the Rings and feeling fairly similarly amount each of them, I find it easier to address them all at once. After all, despite their length, they are perhaps best seen and thought of as one whole. It’s one long story – with an emphasis on long. Including the extended versions, the whole epic will pass eleven hours in total running time: and an amazing eleven hours it is.

The Lord of the Rings moves filmmaking into new territory. It’s massive in its scope, beautiful in its diverse scenery, flawless in its attention to detail from sets to costumes, magnificent in its dynamic camera work, consistent in its acting, amazing in its special effects, phenomenal in its creation of Gollum, tight and engaging in its script and unceasingly enjoyable in its finished state.

Peter Jackson is also to be applauded for his faithfulness to the books; there’s a few changes here and there, but its amazing close for a 1500 page trilogy. The faithfulness to the text on the narrative level, however, is actually also the film’ greatest weakness. The films are very plot heavy, although with good reason – there’s a lot to say.

Even still, with the exception of a few deliberate pauses and speeches, Rings rarely gets much deeper than its storyline. It does manage to get a few things across though. The most obvious being the constant contrast between good and evil and the constant struggles that good must suffer in order to conquer it. Even more important are the ideas of hope – that evil can indeed be conquered if we’re willing to make the sacrifices necessary to do it. There’s more; in eleven hours, there’s gotta be. I do appreciate the fact that as important as the plot is, the characters aren’t wholly sacrificed for its sake. We still get enough of them to see that they themselves have changed as much as they’ve changed the world around them.

A quick roll call: Frodo (Elijah Wood) suffers on behalf of all living things and bears the weight of the world, eventually receiving his eternal reward. Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) go from silly, insignificant hobbits to becoming strong, brave warriors, changing the fate of the world despite their seeming insignificance. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) rises up out of obscurity and becomes the leader he was born to be and wins the crown he was born to wear. Gandolf (Ian McKellen) dies and is resurrected with glory, power and the wisdom that will put away the enemy forever. Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) overcome their initial distaste of each other’s peoples and become genuine friends. Arwen (Liv Tyler) forsakes her people and eternal life to marry Aragorn and Eowyn (Miranda Otto) forsakes the crown to fight with the common man. Boromir (Sean Bean) learns the lesson of his pride and his brother Faramir (David Wenham) is blessed for his humility. Theoden (Bernard Hill) grows into strength and courage while coming to do what he knows is right. Sam (Sean Astin) starts out being the most humble of servants – the most humble, most loyal, most lowly of servants – and turns out savior of the world.

These characters really have changed. Middle-Earth has changed. And we have changed. The Lord of the Rings certainly has a lot to tell us. Despite the fantasy world it lives in, it tells us something about the nature of humanity and about the nature of Christ. But most importantly, it tells us something about the potential that each of these thing has to bring about good.

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