Maybe it's the pointy ears. Whether we're talking about "The Lord of the Rings" or "Star Trek," I can never fully embrace a franchise where characters wear prosthetic earpieces. Nor, for that matter, am I crazy about swords (whether forged in a lake of fire or capped with a shaft of light), runes, hellhounds or old bachelors in flowing robes. Soon after the "The Return of the King" is released in theaters Wednesday, it will start harvesting millions of dollars and thousands of Oscar votes. Judging by the first two films in the "LOTR" trilogy, I don't doubt that "The...