The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Director: Peter Jackson

Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis, Viggo Mortensen, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, John Rhys-Davies, Karl Urban, Mirando Otto Hugo, Brad Dourif, Weaving, Liv Tyler, Christopher Lee, Bernard Hill, David Wenham, John Noble

Writers: J.R.R. Tolkien (novel), Fran Walsh (screenplay), Philippa Boyens (screenplay), Stephen Sinclair (screenplay), Peter Jackson (screenplay)

Synopsis:

As Frodo (Wood), Sam (Astin) continue their journey to Mt. Doom, Gollum (Serkis) begins to sow the seeds of dissent among the two Hobbits, with the hopes of procuring the ring for himself. Meanwhile, Gandalf (McKellan) and Pippin (Boyd) race to the city of Minas Tirith to help in its defense against the coming forces of Mordor. Aragon (Mortensen), Legolas (Bloom) and Gimli (Rhy-Davies) walk a dangerous road, seeking an advantage in the coming battle. Merry (Monaghan) looks to prove his worth among the Riders of Rohan.

First Impressions:

Like the first two installments in the series, I saw this one in theaters. Also, like the previous two films I was quite pleased with the end result. Again, the movie made several departures from the books but those didn't bother me all that much. To me, the film worked as a satisfying ending to a terrific trilogy. Prior to this viewing, I ranked it as my second favorite of Peter Jackson's Middle Earth films and it certainly ranked near the top of my favorite films of all time. It's been a few years since I watched it, so let's see how it stands up.

Story/Direction: 

"My friends, you bow to no one."

**Note: as before, the version of this film that I watched for this review was the Extended Edition, which I view as the definitive version. **

Since I've already talked a lot about the various themes explored in this series, I'd like to take the time hear to recognize the fantastic job done by Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens in bringing this series to life. Many people don't realize nowadays what a seemingly impossible task these movies presented. There weren't many in Hollywood who thought it was possible to make these films and even Prof. Tolkien himself thought it was impossible. Despite all of that, Jackson and company not only made the films but they made three pretty great films.

That's not to say this one is without fault because it has a few notable issues. First of all, the movie is quite long (the Extended Edition has a 4 hour run time) and while it's paced pretty well, four hours is a long time to watch a movie. I also took issue with the changes made to some characters, Gimli in particular. While he was portrayed fairly well in the first movie, he's used almost entirely for comic relief in the second and third films. I understand Jackson's need to inject some lightheartedness into the series considering the last two entries are fairly dark but it just bugs me that it had to get all dumped on poor Gimli.

Another area of criticism directed at this film, which I don't agree with, is the multiple endings. On one hand, I can see how the numerous ending could get tiresome. On the other hand, however, Jackson needed to wrap up 12 hours worth of story and structuring the end with different endings was best way to do it. That being said, I could have done without the scene where the fellowship are all standing in Frodo's room laughing (it was a bit cringy). 

One other area of criticism regarding this film is the use of the eagles in the story. If I had a nickel for every time some smug prick said to me "hurrr...why didn't they just fly the eagles over the volcano and drop the ring in?...durrr" I'd be a millionaire. Here's the thing, this is a dumb argument that is generally only brought up by stupid people trying to sound clever. First and foremost, the eagles are intelligent creatures with free will and not just pets or mounts. Now, the film does not go into much detail about that, so I can see why most of the viewing public wouldn't know that. HOWEVER, anybody who actually saw the film would notice two things that punch holes in the eagle argument. The first is that the big bad evil guy, Sauron, is nothing more than a big eye sitting atop a tall tower, so it stands to reason that he's going to notice a group of big-ass eagles flying towards the volcano. The second flaw in the argument is that the Ringwraiths all ride giant flying creatures that could cause problems for any airborne incursion into Mordor. Whew...now that I got that off my chest, let's get back to the review.

Acting:

Once again, the cast in this film does a great job. Since this is the last film in the series, I think it's fitting that I take time to highlight the performance of Viggo Mortensen. Viggo is one of the better (and underrated) actors of his generation and these were the films that shot him to stardom. He plays Aragorn with a great deal of charisma and he does a great job of carrying the narrative of all three films, particularly this last one. It's hard to imagine, but Mortensen wasn't Jackson first choice and had originally cast another actor to play the role. 

Props must also be given to Elijah Wood, who also had to carry a great deal of the movie. I'm not a huge fan of Wood but throughout the three films, he really does a great job in showing the growing weight the ring imposes on him. It's definitely a subtle performance and it helped that he was able to play off two other great actors.

Speaking of, let's talk about the job Sean Astin did as Sam. In the books, Sam can give off a bit of a irritating mother-hen vibe, which frequently got on my nerves. While Astin does show a bit of that in the film, he doesn't overdo it and it helps make Sam one of the more relatable characters in the film.

The rest of the cast from John Noble to Orlando Bloom to Karl Urban all turn in pretty solid performances, as well. 

Visual/Special Effects:

I've already said what I need to say about the special effects in this series, so I won't go over that again. Suffice to say, after 15 years, the effects in the film still hold up. Instead, this seems like an opportune moment to discuss the awesome majesty that is New Zealand. These films were about as perfect an advertisement for New Zealand as you could get and I recall reading somewhere that the country's tourism numbers skyrocketed in the years following the movies' release. At this point, the landscape of New Zealand will be forever connected to the Lord of the Rings and honestly, when I reread the books, I'm picturing New Zealand in my head.

Score/Music:

Again, it's hard to find something to say about the music in this film, that I haven't already said in one of the previous review. So, I'll just leave it at, Howard Shore is a friggin genius and the music in this film rocks.

Action:

Much like The Two Towers, there is a lot of action in this movie and much of that action takes place in the last act. The Battle of Pelanor Fields is one of the more epic battle sequences in film history. It has cavalry (both horse and giant elephants), trolls, wizards and all manner of crazy stuff. The fact that Jackson chose to break up the battle a bit by scenes with Frodo and Sam helped make it not be so tiring. 

Speaking of Frodo and Sam, the fight between Sam and Shelob is the highlight action sequence to me. This is mostly due to the fact that it's pretty faithful to the books but also because it looks great. The main reason why the fight looks as good as it does is the work WETA Digital did on Shelob. The thing just looks like it's really there and I'm sure has been creeping out arachnaphobics for the past decade and a half. 

Other action beats in the movie, such as the Battle at the Black Gates and the fight between Frodo and Gollum are all done equally well and helped the fours hours breeze by.

Final Verdict:

Well, my opinion of the film hasn't changed much after this viewing. It's still one of my favorite movies and while I was a little more aware of its warts, it's still a pretty great movie.