Unfortunately, I'm at a point where superb visual and audio effects are a given, so it's more difficult to impress me.
I think the best mass battles, from my perspective, are those that make me go "if I were the camera, that is exactly what I'd be experiencing". Generally this means chaos, brutality, appropriate levels of noise, morbid humor in small doses, etc. The illusion is ruined for me by weird or wide angle shots, high-speed or slow motion shots, over-the-top music, unnecessary noise/visual effects, and inappropriate humor.
Perversely, I think "Saving Private Ryan" is the epitome of good battle sequences, because I didn't want to re-experience them a second time. The new "Battlestar Galactica" wasn't quite as realistic, but the battles were fast, violent, full of unpleasant decisions, had only a minimal musical score, and the sound effects were at least muted (in space, obviously, there shouldn't be any at all).
On the other hand, the battle at Helm's Deep in "Two Towers" featured a major musical score, ongoing joking, the cliched "first-ever use of gunpowder in combat", and dragged on too long - plus they kept cutting away to other plots, which to me disrupted whatever tension there was. About the only part that truly moved me was the wide-angle shot of the cavalry charge down the mountain at the end - and even then I was thinking that most of the horses and riders would take a tumble on such a steep slope. Frankly, I got bored, and asked myself why it took three months to film that sequence.
That's what I'm afraid will happen when I see ROTK, so I may as well see it in the comfort of my own home, and for the cost of a rental.
Nope, I'm not one of those folks with the whole home entertainment system - I get by with a 20" TV and I only have a DVD because it was a present last Christmas.
J