The Return of the King (2003) Review

Title: The Return of the King
Year: 2003

Director: Peter Jackson

Country: New Zealand

Language: English

In 2001 my dad & I had gone to the theatre together to see Fellowship of the Ring. I was greatly impressed by Tolkein's novels, but my dad went into the film blind. When the film ended he said "That's it!?  I sat here for 3 1/2 hours and only saw half a movie!?" I smirked, "Dad, this is only the first of THREE movies."

In this Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.

Winning 11 Oscars, including Best Picture,  The Return of the King changed cinema forever. It made mainstream fantasy popular; It introduced Hollywood to performance motion capture; It pushed special & practical effects by leaps and bounds; It encouraged movie studios to take risky gambles on previously "unfilmable" material. Indeed nobody thought the Lord of the Rings Trilogy could be filmed, but Peter Jackson proved them wrong. 

The special and practical effects of Return of the King remain impressive two decades later. Gollum remains my favourite motion capture character. The set design is awe inspiring; Howard Shore's score is memorable and adds to the atmosphere of each scene. The costumes, cinematography and acting are all terrific. 

"I can't carry the ring Frodo, but I can carry you!"

I love all the scenes with Frodo, Sam and Gollum. If there's anything negative I can say about Return of the King it's that I don't think the characters have satisfying character arcs. Aside from Sean Bean, our heroes aren't morally complex. Sam is good in Fellowship ^& he remains good. I also think Lord of the Rings has contributed to a few bad Hollywood practices such as separating films into "parts" (ex. Dune Part 1)  and oversaturating Cinemas with fantasy violence. 

I also really despise the trilogy's insistence to extreme close up on Elijah Wood's eyes whenever he is in trouble. Choose another shot!

Due to Peter Jackson's trilogy, Lord of the Rings fandom has extended beyond the cinema & become an entire generations' Star Wars. The Lord of the Rings trilogy started strong with Fellowship of the Ring & ended strong with Return of the King.