12 Most Hated Blockbuster Movie Endings

Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy was the first real blockbuster series of the 21st century, and it really set the bar high with its balance of high drama and large scale visual spectacle. When the third and final instalment landed in 2003, it became the second highest grossing box office hit ever at the time, and the first fantasy film to sweep the board at the Academy Awards.

Audiences everywhere had fallen so deeply in love with Middle Earth, they never wanted to leave. Unfortunately, the film itself had that exact same problem.

Sure, epic storytelling tends to necessitate an epic running time, but The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is really pushing it, at a butt-numbing, bladder-clenching 3 hours and 20 minutes. And to make matters worse, the story has pretty much reached its natural conclusion - with the destruction of the One Ring - around the 2 hour 40 minute mark.

Even allowing for 10 minutes of end credits, that still leaves a full half-hour of meandering heartfelt goodbyes, which may be all moving and tender for a while, but leave most of us fiddling in our seats and checking our watches after not too long.

Devotees of JRR Tolkein may complain that Jackson deviated significantly from the novel's more downbeat final chapters, but either way, most if not all viewers can agree things could have been wrapped up at less of a languid pace.