Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) by Jacob M — 21 Dec 2013

"Prepare for battle!".

It's very rare when a third chapter, especially the finale chapter of a film franchise, raises my spirits up. Previously, my favorite final chapter film was Return of the Jedi, but with JJ Abrams and Disney working on a new trilogy, Return of the Jedi is not the last film anymore. Now my favorite final chapter is the final chapter in the LOTR trilogy, The Return of the King, a finale that truly raises the bar in creating epic adventure movies.

As Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Astin), and Gollum (Andy Serkis) are closer and closer to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, the Ring begins to take a heavy toll on Frodo, making it really difficult for Frodo to trust his companions, especially Sam, who's still suspicious of Gollum's part in the journey. Also in Middle-earth, the Battle for Middle-earth begins, and Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson), with an extremely outnumbered army, leads the ultimate battle to defeat Saruron's armies and reclaim the throne of Gondor.

Also appearing in this great film is Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd as Merry and Pippin, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, John Rhys-Davies as Gimli, Bernard Hill as King Théoden, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, Liv Tyler as Arwen, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel, Miranda Otto as Eowyn, Karl Urban as Eomer, David Wenham as Faramir, Ian Holm in a small role as Bilbo, and John Noble as Denethor, Boromir/Faramir's father and the Steward of Gondor.

You'd think that with a franchise like LOTR, something this bog would fizzle out after the first installment. But Peter Jackson, an extremely dedicated director who's the most obsessed fan of Tolkien's source material that I've heard of, creates the ultimate finale, creating, according to film critic Peter Travers, "a film epic in which all future epics will be judged." I strongly believe that there hasn't been an epic this epic since William Wyler stunned us with that glorius chariot race in Ben-Hur and David Lean's excellent cinematography-filled wonder in Lawrence of Arabia.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; Middle-earth is one of the most fantastic worlds ever created in film history. With the new Hobbit trilogy already confirming this fact, it's safe to say that the stunning New Zealand locations will be hard to top when creating incredible and fantastic worlds in cinema. From the stunning cinematic shots of the green grass to the dark and murky world of Mordor, Middle-earth has never been the same. The best cinematography in the whole trilogy; nuff said.

While my favorite battle sequence in the trilogy is Helm's Deep in The Two Towers, the action sequences here are still mind blowing, with the huge standout being the Battle of Minis Tirith and the Pellinor Fields. The sequence is at least 30 to 40 minutes long, and with each passing minute, I'm stunned. I don't think any other film director can match intense, epic battle sequences as incredible as what Peter Jackson has pulled off here. Other strong sequences are Sam's fight with a creepy-looking CGI spider named Shelob and the climatic showdown on Mount Doom alongside Aragon's battle at the Black Gate.

What succeeds more than these already excellent battle sequences is the story. As with the RT consensus, it's "emotionally powerful." The characters are developed at the highest level, to the point where we root for the good characters in the movie, especially Frodo, Sam, and Aragorn. Some have complained over the multiple endings explaining the fates of the characters, but as for me, I was still impressed. I wanted to find out what happened to these great characters, and they're endings were handled perfectly well, maybe even making some cry in the case of a certain number.

Helping make Return of the King the already incredible experience it is is the acting. I'm not going to write a lengthy paragraph about how great each actor/actress is here, I'll just they that each one involved did a truly fantastic job and creates that emotionally powerful finale that should not be missed. Standouts here include Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortenson, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, John Noble as the mad steward, and especially, Andy Serkis as Gollum. What surprises me the most about this is that no actor didn't receive an Oscar nomination when the film literally won about every other award in the book, including Best Picture. I could picture Viggo and Serkis receiving Best Supporting Actor nominations at least. The Academy can be really stupid sometimes...

And last, Howard Shore's score for this excellent final chapter is Shore at his all-time best. Shore uses the great themes present in the first two that were already fantastic and scores a heavily, emotionally satisfying score that's one of the best scores I've heard in the past decade or so. I'm also impressed by the closing song by Annie Lennox, "Into the West", one of the most moving songs I've ever heard in my life. Music plays a huge part in handling this phenomenal final chapter, and Shore's music definitely doesn't disappoint here.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return, simply put, is the greatest final chapter ever made in a film franchise, better than Back to the Future III, better than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, and better than The Dark Knight Rises. Peter Jackson proves he's definitely the filmmaking genius here, with some visually excellent battle sequences, an emotionally powerful story, and compelling acting and characters. Even with The Hobbit films (which are still great even if they're not up to LOTR standards), there's no doubt in my mind that Peter Jackson will be the modern George Lucas when it comes to wowing us at state-of-the-art visuals and excellent stories. I'm really stunned here!

"Send these foul creatures back into the abyss!".