Once again, Jackson, Boyens & Walsh provide the most interesting track in the DVD set. Their insights into the production of the film are fascinating.

It doesn't really matter what anyone has to say on this track because the only memory of it that you'll walk away with is Richard Taylor's loud, robotic recitation (if he was speaking spontaneously and not reading from something, then it's even more scary) that punctuates the track like an alley cat joining in the libretto of an opera. For four and a half hours? I couldn't even get through the first.

.

My favourite commentary on the previous two disks, for flat out entertainment, were the cast ones. Fantastic.

Which leaves me to ask "what the bloody hell happened?" with ROTK. The only saving graces, I feel, are the hobbit, especially Billy and Dom who are comedy gold, as always.

Andy Serkis is just annoying. The Smeagol/Gollum gimmick sounds good in theory, but starts grating quickly, even though it's rarely used.

I've made it through disk 1, and in the case of the previous movies, I immediately went to disk 2. I have yet to finish the track on ROTK. Maybe they've run out of stories. Maybe, having finally finished the trilogy, they've lost a little bit of interest. It's hard to tell what the problem is, but it's a poor commentary.

What's worse is the sheer number of people involved. As much as people loathed Liv Tyler in the movie, she only talks over Arwen's scenes. Rather than have the smaller players just pop up to talk over their scene, they should he devoted one track to, say, the main players. (The Fellowship, Theoden, Eowyn etc...) And, like the True Romance Special Edition, on one of the appendices, had the likes of Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving etc... just comment on their scenes.

Not the worst track I've ever heard, but a huge disappointment when compared to the prior two cast commentaries.

On the plus side, it's great to have so many participants stitched together on the audio track - the editing chore to sort out and synch over four hours of material from so many different sources is in itself an impressive achievement. The only dud note is the proportion of airtime given the cast - why the hell does some inarticulate mushmouth who plays an orc show up on this disc again and again instead of someone like John Rhys-Davies who doesn't get enough to say?