The Lord Of The Rings/The Return Of The King - Movie Review

The Return Of The King - Movie Review

Critics Score - 10 of 10

General Audience Score - 10 of 10

When it comes to film trilogies, for there even to be a third means the massive success and profitability of either the first or both prior films and the series has demanded the third installment. People love the stories and characters and want to know what happens next. But if history has taught us anything, from franchises like The Matrix, The Godfather and Star Wars, sticking the landing on a trilogy is an almost impossible task. Well, twenty years ago Peter Jackson accepted the task and fortunately for him, he had filmed almost the entirety of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy all at once, then just had a few reshoots to fill in any gaps he deemed necessary for the final product. The final entry into the franchise, The Return Of The King, is arguably not only the greatest conclusion to a trilogy ever, but also one of the greatest films ever made. In my estimation, The Fellowship barely edges out Return as far as my favorite of the series, probably simply because of it’s release date. I had it available to watch and was able to enjoy it for two more years during my formative film period. And although I prefer the nighttime battle of Helm’s Deep with it’s grit and grime over Return’s battle for Minas Tirith, there is just no denying how incredible Return Of The King is. It is the only film in history to make a clean sweep at the Oscars, winning all eleven of the awards it was nominated for, including Best Picture. When one might ponder what movie would or could be the greatest film of all time, The Return Of The King would certainly make the short list.

SYNOPSIS - The grand finale in the series opens with a backstory on the creature Gollum (Andy Serkis) and how he was originally Sméagol, a very similar creature to a hobbit. It opens with a close up shot of a worm being pinched between two fingers. As the camera begins to focus on Sméagol behind the squirming creature, we see that he is about to attach the worm to a hook. He and his cousin are on a boat, they are out fishing. After his cousin gets pulled out of the boat and into the water by a fish, he spots a gold ring on the bottom of the river. Leaving the fishing pole, he grabs the ring and returns to the surface. After seeing the ring that his cousin has procured from the river, Sméagol immediately becomes taken with the shiny object. After a struggle with his cousin, his lust for this ring drives Sméagol to murder, the desire for ring forcing his hands to clench around his cousins throat. As the ring slowly puts a wedge in between his mind and his sanity, we watch as Sméagol slowly becomes the creature Gollum, a loathsome thing whose obsession with the ring has him enslaved to it’s influence, corruption and power. We see the moment when his normal human eyes roll back in his head and Gollum’s big, bulging eyes flicker open as he looks at the ring in his hand and we hear his snake like hissing voice utter, “My precious”.

After learning his backstory, we catch up with Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) as they work their way through the mountain passes that are crawling with orcs and other vile inhabitants into the land of Mordor. Side note, if you suffer from arachnophobia, this won’t be one of your favorite parts from these movies. But eventually we leave the two hobbits in order to catch up with Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gimli (John Ryes-Davies) and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) as they visit the tower of Orthanc, post the battle of Helm’s Deep from the previous film. The wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) is holed up in the tower since the tree people known as the Ents came in and took control. Gandalf and Saruman do not mince words. Saruman tells Gandalf that he has seen the war that Sauron is getting close to unleashing on Middle Earth and it will come soon. The armies of darkness will attack the people of Gondor and the battle for Minas Tirith will be unleashed. Into the second act the film eventually splits into three parts. Frodo and Sam continue their journey towards Mount Doom while Gandalf struggles to defend the city of Minas Tirith against Sauron’s invading evil hordes. Finally, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli travel into some haunted mountains where Aragorn attempts to become the king that Gondor and all the free peoples of Middle Earth need him to become.

We, and by we, I mean me, can say with concrete proof that Peter Jackson’s direction of The Return Of The King, as well as his direction of the whole trilogy, is other worldly. I say other worldly, no pun intended, because his ability to take us to this other world of Middle Earth, is unparalleled. This medieval alternate reality filled with it’s various civilizations of elves, hobbits, dwarfs and a myriad of other creatures is as completely immersive as any you can ever hope to find on a cinema screen. The costumes are impeccably crafted and this is only matched by their creativity, complete with cloaks, weapons, staffs, jewelry and an innumerable amount of ornaments that only add to the ability of this series to swallow us whole. The production design is staggering. Besides being set in the gorgeous landscape of New Zealand, the creation of the black gate of Mordor, Minas Tirith and other cities, scenes and landscapes are exactly how you picture them when you read the books and they envelop one completely. I cannot scratch the surface of all the technical aspects in which this film astounds, the original score by Howard Shore is nothing short of iconic. The acting work by this excellent ensemble cast is mind boggling, just in the sheer absurdity of it’s size. Some might take some issue with the pacing and length with it’s almost three and a half hour runtime. Also as the film concludes, it takes almost a good forty-five minutes to wind down to the credits as we get to say our goodbyes. But for people that loved the books, know these characters and appreciate everything Peter Jackson did for it, they cannot get enough. I not only love the extended editions of all the films but if Jackson ever released six hour versions of each film, I’d welcome as much time as he’d let me spend in Middle Earth.

SUMMARY - General audiences and critics alike can appreciate the depth of this world and just how much love and care Jackson poured into its onscreen adaptation. For my money, The Return Of The King is a film I’ll be Returning to time and time again and among the pantheon of films out there, this one is surely a King.