Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) by Tatsuhito K — 17 Jan 2016

Without a doubt, this is one of the biggest and most ambitious films ever made. Although there aren't that many sweeping landscape shots compared to the previous films, you can certainly feel the vastness of Middle Earth.

And when things do crash with one another, you can feel the weight of the armors, stones, creatures and just anything and everything. What Peter Jackson accomplished with this trilogy is quite remarkable, and he will always be remembered as one of the greatest directors of all time.

It is a masterpiece of filmmaking; from the visual effects to the cinematography, production design, costumes, editing and Howard Shore's fantastic score, they are quite brilliant. However, on an emotional level, I still find it somewhat unengaging.

It is too long, and at the end I found myself feeling exhausted, which is not something I want from watching a film. There are some moments in the film that made me go, "wait, what was that about? And why is this character/scene/conflict important again?" I'm not saying this is a bad movie.

It's just that everything is a little too much for me. The Return of the King is entertaining for what it is and I admire what Peter Jackson, the cast, and every single one of the film crew members have done with this film.

But it's still too long and overstuffed. My least favorite of the three.