Three years in the making plus several awards, huge box office numbers and widespread acclaim, Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s classic trilogy “Lord of the Rings” is finally completed. The first two films for “The Fellowship of the Rings” and “The Two Towers” both drew huge box office numbers as it finds itself becoming probably, the greatest film trilogy of all-time. After the release of “The Two Towers” and its extended DVD version, the third and final part of the trilogy “The Return of the King” had a sense of aura that was unexplained as its release date loomed. Finally, it has come out and the end result isn’t just one of the greatest films in the past twenty years but with its predecessors, a historical achievement in filmmaking.

“The Return of the King” picks up where “The Two Towers” was left off as the journey to destroy the Ring of Sauron to Mordor and the fires of Mount Doom is coming to an end. Along the way, fear is upon the members of the Fellowship in the first story as they take on new roles while the ring-bearer Frodo is no longer himself as Gollum and the ring’s power corrupt him. Meanwhile, Aragorn is finding himself having trouble with accepting his newfound leadership and his reluctance to become the king of Gondor while the land is under attack from Sauron’s forces. Like the previous two films, there are elements of spectacles, innocence, and humor but unlike the two films, “The Return of the King” intensifies all of those elements and it’s the most emotional of the three films. Overall, Peter Jackson not only brings a fitting farewell to not just the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy but he ends it with a bang as it’s one film event that will never be replicated again.

The film begins the story of Smeagol/Gollum (Andy Serkis and elements of CGI-animation) back when he was a hobbit. On the day he found the ring, he was fishing until his companion Deagol (Thomas Robins) caught a big fish that pulled him out of the boat and he found a ring. Smeagol though was seduced by the ring’s power that he kills Deagol and calls his ring “My precious” and for many years, he’s become corrupted by the ring’s power as he calls himself Gollum. The story goes back where its left off as Gollum accompanies Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) to Mordor while Frodo is becoming weak. One night, Gollum’s dual personality with Smeagol talk with each other as they conspire to kill Frodo & Sam by luring them into a trap. Sam hears Gollum’s talk and after months of frustration and mistrust, Sam wants to kill Gollum but Frodo needs him to take them Mordor.

Meanwhile in the land of Isengard, the remaining members of the Fellowship are scouring the land. Gandalf the White (Ian McKellan), dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and Aragorn (Viggio Mortensen) find Isengard in ruins thanks to the help of Ents including Treebeard (voiced by Rhys-Davies) and their two hobbit friends Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd). Gandalf scours the land as he learns that Saruman (Christopher Lee, who isn’t seen in the film but will be in the extended DVD version soon with maybe, Brad Dourif’s Grima Wormtongue) is now imprisoned in his tower by the Ents and Gandalf gives Treebeard full control. Pippin meanwhile, finds Saruman’s orb and gives it to Gandalf as they all return to Rohan. The remaining Fellowship celebrates the victory of the battle of Helm’s Deep and the fall of Isengard as Theoden King (Bernard Hill) congratulates his people for the victory. Eowyn (Miranda Otto) still has eyes for Aragorn as she celebrates with her brother Eomer (Karl Urban).

Later that night as Legolas and Aragorn look towards the land of Mordor, they knew the war isn’t over yet as Pippin, seduced by the orb’s power, looks into it and sees something that nearly jeopardizes the Fellowship. He tells Gandalf that Sauron is moving toward Gondor and the city of Mirnas Tirth with forces many times bigger than the one he faced in Helm’s Deep and with men, cursed by Sauron’s power, coming from the south. Gandalf decides to go to Gondor to warn its people, despite Theoden’s bitterness towards the land, as he takes Pippin since Sauron is now thinking he has the ring. Merry decides to stay at Rohan to help get ready for the war as for the first time ever, Merry and Pippin split up.

After a few days, Gandalf and Pippin arrive at Mirnas Tirth where they meet with Gondor’s steward and defense head Denethor (John Noble), the father of Boromir (Sean Bean) who had died in the first film. Gandalf learns that Denethor has been driven into madness over Boromir’s death as Pippin offered to be a servant in order to pay for the debt of Boromir’s loss. Gandalf and Pippin watch to the mountains of Morodor where Gandalf admits, he has a fool’s hope that Frodo will make it until he saw a beaming lights from the mountains as he learned that Sauron is sending out his forces and flying Nazgul creatures including the Witch King Gothmog (Lawrence Makoare). In Mordor, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum, watch the beaming light as they climb the mountains as Gollum tells Frodo that Sam wants the ring and all sorts of corruption ensues.

Back in Gondor, the Uruk-hai Orc forces arrive at a port city where Boromir’s brother Faramir (David Wenham) and his men try to surprise them but there were too many as they retreated. Gandalf knew the forces of Gondor aren’t enough to combat Sauron’s army as he got Pippin to light a basin to send signal to Rohan. Aragorn sees the signals as he tells Theoden that Gondor asks for help and Theoden decides to gather every soldier to help Gondor. Eomer and some men go seek out for more troops as Eowyn decide to accompany Aragorn and the remaining Fellowship to the mountains nearby Gondor. When they arrive at the mountains, they see a secret path that leads to a cave where no one has ever returned. Aragorn sees the number of troops gathered and knew it’s not enough.

Back in the elvish world of Rivendell, Arwen (Liv Tyler) leaves for the boat as she sees her future and asks for her father Elrond (Hugo Weaving) for a chance to help Aragorn. Elrond is reluctant since he has certain distrusts towards humans but gives in when he rebuilds the sword that Isildur used to cut the ring from Sauron years back. He arrives to the mountains alone and gives Aragorn the sword as he tells her that with Sauron growing, Arwen is becoming weak and he must go to the cave and call out the damned troops who were cursed by Isildur. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli go into the cave to fear of Eowyn who thinks they might not come back as she helped prepare Merry for war as he is served as Theoden’s squire. With the war now going, Theoden wants Eowyn and Merry to stay but she disguises herself to join in the battle with Merry in tow.

In Mirnas Tirth, Pippin notices the estrangement between Faramir and Denethor as Faramir, desperately tries to win the love of his father, even if it’s going on a suicide mission to combat troops at the port city in which, he nearly dies. In Mordor, Frodo breaks away from Sam after accusing him of trying to steal the ring where Gollum leads Frodo into the trap that is the lair of the giant spider, Shelob. Frodo seems to lose hope until he remembers the light Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) gave him. Sam comes in to help as Frodo learns of Gollum’s treachery. By this point, the film is the middle as Frodo and Sam continue into their journey into Gondor while Gandalf and Aragorn fight head on against the Orcs with some major casualties and heroic deeds as the battle between good and evil comes to ahead.

Directed by Jackson based on his script adaptation that he co-wrote with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, “The Return of the King” is indeed, the climax of the entire trilogy. We lose some major characters while everything indeed comes to an end. Jackson, indeed, deserves total credit for all three films as he stayed true to the story while presenting spectacular visuals with cinematographer Andrew Lensie that gives the movie a grand, sprawling look that is overwhelmingly powerful. Overall, as a trilogy, the entire crew from the production designers, CGI-creators, costume designers, and everyone else deserves total credit for all of their hard work. Even the film’s score composer Howard Shore, steps up a notch with his amazing, orchestral score that is filled with suspense and emotional intensity.

The film’s visual moments are amazing, including the battle scenes of Gondor. For those who loved the Helm’s Deep battle in “The Two Towers”, the battles here makes “Helm’s Deep” look like a schoolyard fight. Everything in the battle scenes are over the top with the Nazgul and Oiliphant creatures, loads of soldiers and weapons, even the fighting is more intense. Forget the battles scenes from “Braveheart” “The Return of the King” has THE battle scene. Even the spider Shelob is frightening to watch, even if you hate spiders like I do. This spider makes all of those spiders from “Arachnaphobia”, “Eight Legged Freaks”, and “Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets” be put to shame. It’s no wonder Jackson took everything to the extreme for this film and it’s working. I don’t know how in the hell he’ll top this and maybe, he won’t.

In the acting front, everyone does a great job with some notable standouts. For those of you ladies who were disappointed by the weak feminist film “Mona Lisa Smile” can stop grumbling now. Miranda Otto’s performance as Eowyn is the epitome of true feminism. Just give her a sword and boy; she is someone not to be trifled with. Otto is amazing in both attitude and grace. Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett serve their respective roles with beauty and intelligence as Blanchett continues to prove to be enigmatic in every role she’s in. Bernard Hill as Theoden is excellent to watch as he becomes a bit more open-minded and becomes a leader to watch while Karl Urban as Eomer, just rules in the battle scenes. John Noble is maddening to watch as the mad Denethor as you see him as this brooding figure who loses his mind and is just hysterical to watch while David Wenham’s performance as Faramir is developed into a more desperate individual trying to win his father’s love. Hugo Weaving’s performance as Elrond is as enigmatic as ever as you see him finally trusting Aragorn while wanting what’s best for his daughter.

In the individual roles of the Fellowship, no one played a leader as greater or as *ss-kicking better than Viggio Mortensen as Aragorn. Mortensen plays his role wisely by not making him a bad*ss but also someone who is reluctant to become king while longing for Arwen. This is indeed Mortensen’s best performance to date and it’s about time he’s been giving more leading roles. Sir Ian McKellan is nothing short of brilliance as Gandalf, wisely and powerful, he’s more compassionate about the future, especially in his scene with Billy Boyd as Pippin, he makes Gandalf human. The duo of Orlando Bloom’s Legolas and John Rhys-Davies’ Gimli is as funny as ever as the two try to see who can kill more while proving to have great chemistry as buddies while individually, they have great acting moments. Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan’s performances as Pippin and Merry, respectively, are developed into stronger characters in their roles as they separate to have their individual moments. Monaghan is less funny in this film than in previous ones since his character decides to become more important and join in the fight while Boyd is also more serious as he acts more compassionate as Pippin and even proves himself with a nice singing voice in a very emotional scene.

Andy Serkis’ role as Gollum is more menacing than ever as he tries to corrupt the mind of Frodo and take the ring for himself. Even in the first minutes of the film, you see Serkis for real as Smeagol where we see who he once was. Elijah Wood’s performance as Frodo is more harrowing than ever to the point that the Frodo we knew in the beginning is no more and never returns, even in the film’s ending. Wood brings in a sympathetic, torturous performance as ring-bearer as at times, he seems to give up hope and you want him to win but when he’s corrupted by the ring, you want him to stray away and wish for Sam to save him. The best performance of the whole film easily goes to Sean Astin as Sam, the moral conscience of the film as his character is more courageous than ever, even as he fights Shelob where in some extent, he’s the real hero of the film.

Now does this film deserve the Oscar for Best Picture and Best Director for Peter Jackson? Most definitely. Jackson’s work on the entire trilogy is long overdue and it would be criminal if he doesn’t get the recognition he deserves along with the film. He should win not just for this film but also for the entire trilogy. Everyone involved deserves a special recognition for this film without a doubt. Forget every other franchise ever made and forget “Star Wars”, “Lord of the Rings” is the best trilogy ever made into film. I spit on George Lucas, Han Solo, and all of those on “Star Wars”. They’re a sick joke compared to “Lord of the Rings”.

Now is “The Return of the King” the film of 2003? Almost. While it should receive all sorts of honors it truly deserves, there are those other films that were equally great whether they’re Hollywood productions or independent films. Still, “The Return of the King” deserves all sorts of acclaim for its work, even with the previous two films. There’s a story behind all of this. They’re characters you can care for or not. There’s everything you want. When the Oscars come, “The Return of the King” should be the film to pull for while I would hope for some recognition for my pick of the best film of 2003, Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation”.

For those who’ve seen the first two films, without a doubt should not miss this. It would be criminal to see the first two films and not this one. “The Return of the King” is the best of the three and Peter Jackson did an amazing job on this film. Yet, the only real sad thing about this whole experience is that there will never be another trilogy in this epic scale like this again. Even waiting for the extended version of the DVD to this will be sad since there won’t be anymore. Hopefully, we can wait for Jackson to make the prequel to the trilogy for “The Hobbit” in the future and maybe one day, we call see all four films in one whole day which will be the ultimate movie experience. For a film with everything you want to see, it’s “The Return of the King”.

Related Review:

Dead Alive (1992):

http://www.epinions.com/content_112995503748

LOTR Reviews:

The Fellowship of the Ring (2001):

http://www.epinions.com/content_107586031236

The Two Towers (2002):

http://www.epinions.com/content_113854811780



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older