The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King | Review

Visual fantasy is an entertaining treat, but final installment may be too much for one sitting.

The saddened masses of nerds have claimed their king and his named is Peter Jackson. The mind-boggling three-plus hour conclusion (real fans can expect more than an hours worth in the subsequent DVD version) marks perhaps the end of one of the most audaciously creative, best book adaptations and massively expense film trilogies to hit the screen for generations of filmgoers to come. Writing a page in film history books for some of the most out-of-this-world CGI effects, and breathtaking battles that make this the best mouthwash remedy for anyone with a bad Matrix taste in their mouths.

All good things must come to an end, but what Jackson has managed to accomplish as a director shows there are no ends insight for this talented fantasy specialist who perfected J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales about a ring, a hobbit, a fellowship of nonconformist characters and courage beyond definition.

The real question remains: does this final chapter continue in the same pace of filmmaking excellence? The short answer is yes, there is no question that the merits of this large scale endeavor started the day that New Line Cinema took a leap of faith and committed to Jackson’s vision. This final installment caps off the trilogy in a pleasant manner, it gives fans the epic fight of all fights, some cool looking creatures as in the bezerk elephants, dragon-like bird figures and one of the scariest spiders in motion picture history and parallels the life and death adventures of thousands with a duo of hobbits and one fantastically creepy looking Smeagol. The Return of the King is worthy of applause on many levels, worthy of Oscars in plenty of departments but is far from topping the first film in the series and is far from deserving this year’s honor as best film.

While the moviemaking business and studio strategies will look at this 3-in-1 epic and try to figure how to replicate the same numbers, the fans will rejoice with other numbers–bigger brawls, bigger effects, louder sounds and less pauses in sequences of complete mayhem. The new chapter doesn’t get exactly right back into the travels of Frodo or the aftermath of the war, as the first sequence takes the viewer back in time to a surprising flashback, one which foreshadows how Gollum’s cravings began and how they control him today. While the rest of the film consists of plenty of close calls, heroics from some unlikely heroes and plenty of visually appealing bad ass action sequences, when all is said and done The Return of the King forks out about two hours worth of watchable narrative and about five hacked on in succession pointless endings. While this is a comparably better effort in some areas, I ended up liking the previous two films of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers a lot better. The biggest knock against the film is the run time, which was most likely an issue I covered in my review of the two preceding chapters. While some would say it is essential to the story, I would say cut out at least 40 minutes, especially towards the end with the joyful goodbye scenes.

The battle sequences are the money shots of the series, while I enjoyed the battle sequence in the film prior to this one, there is still much to be visually enjoyed here especially in the part where Aragorn joins arms with the Army of the Dead. The masterful use of CGI as well as the complete production design shows the perseverance to the authenticity of the books and the genius behind the creation found in the various settings. What resonates the most are the dedicated performances from each actor, sure make-up and pointed elf ears and long beards help create the personas, but each individual actor seems to encapsulate the high drama and human emotion and give a true sense that their worlds are on the brink of destruction.

The Return of the King is not the crowning achievement I had anticipated, instead, it is a good solid continuation of one forward movement. Kudos to Jackson for a job well done.

Rating 3 stars