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Length limitations is not the reason Return of the King sucked. Listen to the Peter Jackson commentary. He didn't care about any of the events in that part of the story. None of them inspired him. None but one. The charage of the Rohirrim onto the Pelanor Fields at the Siege of Gondor (how's that for a geek sentence!). It's a fantastic moment of the film, infused with passion.
No surprise on my part when I heard Jackson in his own voice declare that was the only part of Tolkien's third act that did anything for him.
The mistake was not running time. The mistake was taking on a project when the third act of the story bores you.
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I love Ridley Scott's introduction to his Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven. He cautions it's not merely a lot of entrances and exits to extend existing scenes, or extraneous stuff wisely left on the editing room floor.
In most director's cuts, that's exactly what you get. They are vanity pieces lacking editorial judgment. For the most part.
Kingdom of Heaven is certainly an exception. And the fight with the studio over running time and content was pretty well publicized at the time of that film's release. It's still far from a perfect movie, but the Director's Cut is a revelation if you've seen the theatrical.
Not so much with Return of the King. What a freaking mess either way.
The more I think on it, the more I'm glad there are no extended versions of the Harry Potter movies.
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