I kinda knew it already...

[acroyear]

One reviewer on the film's long (more than 20 minutes after the ring is destroyed) ending: For us outsiders, it seems like too much of a good thing. You keep awaiting the wondrous magical elven words 'The' and 'End' to bring the enchantment to a finish. Instead your mind's eye produces 'But Wait: There's Still More Stuff!'"

Well, I kinda knew it was gonna be like that and not just because I've read the books...however, the books are a clue to that -- Tolkien wrote 5 whole CHAPTERS of work after the big victory, including the Scouring that we already know Jackson cut from the script before it even went into production (if you don't know, you know now -- he never filmed it, it won't be in the dvd, he never liked it in the books in the first place).

But how I knew it would be as long as it is in the film: the music. The soundtrack's already been out for a couple of weeks, and even in the music, Howard Shore seems to be saying goodbye to the various themes just as on screen we would be saying goodbye to the characters until finally only Samwise is left with Rosie. There's a good 18 minutes of music that just runs including the coronation all the way to the grey havens.

Some critics, looking at it from a "movie" standpoint complain because we've gotten very used to the pat ending that leaves room for the sequel. Jackson, in filming an intentional trilogy up front (as opposed to Matrix, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Aliens, all of which has their sequels come as a result of the success of the first film) that has no sequel in itself, there's a real END to it all.

Jackson is giving the films a chance to say goodbye because there really isn't ever going to be a follow through, not for the characters...the actors can talk about the film forever (and likely will), but the characters are done, that's it, no more, we're not coming back.

Its like how many real "endings" the Cheers finale had (about 4 if I recall), or the Mash finale, because that's how attached they and we are to the characters.