[Azaelia of Willowbottom]

Interesting...This post isn't as long or as in-depth as I'd like it to be, since I'm just checking in quickly before I have to leave in a few minutes.

I have to agree with Boromir about Finding Neverland...I love movies that make me cry, and it's definitely my favorite Johnny Depp film.

However, my reaction to ROTK was very different than the indifference that most people in the thread mention. ROTK is a very emotional movie for me. I guess that what one person finds emotionally powerful is not the same as what another thinks.

I think that it takes a certain amount of strength and self-confidence to put the tear-jerking stuff into a movie, though. So much of our culture (at least here in the US of A) is centered around a stiff-upper-lip attitude: crying is a show of weakness, etc. Sometimes powerful emotion in a movie can make the audience uncomfortable. Also, acting intense emotion is a lot harder than performing humor. Some directors take the easy way out. That could mean substituting humor inappropriate to the moment (Helm's Deep and pretty much any other Gimli scene reek of this), or it could lead to scenes that feel less than heartfelt (which I didn't notice much of in the LOTR movies). I'd rather emotion be absent than be fake.

I didn't get the sense that emotion was faked in ROTK or TTT. When it was there, I felt it. Like I said, I pretty much cried my way through ROTK, and the end of TTT was teary for me, too.

That's not to say I'm defending movies that don't make you feel. I think that movies that succeed in the attempt of emotion, like Finding Neverland, and (for me, at least, LOTR), are a rare breed for unfortunate reasons. Though it does make them that much more special, makes real power that much more breathtaking.