The Return of the King

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

One of my favorite films of all time is The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. A fantasy film that is the last part in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The film was released in 2003 and was directed by Peter Jackson and is the film adaptation of the book of the same name. It is the only fantasy film to have won the Academy Awards for Best Picture. The film is a continuation of the main character Frodo Baggins a hobbit, on his journey to destroy the one ring.

The film is, in my opinion is the best out of the trilogy. Peter Jackson has managed to bring Tolkien’s Middle Earth to the big screen with that appeals to a wide audience. The character interactions are excellent especially those between Frodo and Gollum who was the previous ring bearer who like Frodo is a hobbit. This is important because Frodo can see firsthand what the influences of the one ring can do, it is basically looking into a mirror. The CGI work for Gollum’s appearance has held up even to this day.

The film also has great set pieces. The Battle for Minas-Tirith also known as the Battle for Pelannor Fields was a well shot battle, with wide angle shots of Mordor’s armies which numbered over 10,000 and the charge of the Rohirrim was well shot as well, with a ray of light coming from behind the army to signify the arrival of the forces of good and ominous dark clouds for the army of Mordor.

The acting was top notch as well with Viggo Mortensen’s Aragorn went from a lone ranger to the charismatic leader who took the mantle of king, his battle speech at the end of the film was inspired. John Noble’s Denethor was well acted, after the death of his son Boromir at the end of the first film he became a broken man who lost faith in everything including his youngest son Faramir played by David Wenham. I wished there was more interactions between Denethor and Faramir hoping for them to bury the hatchet so to speak.

The film is not without its fault. The first is the length of the film. The Return of the King clocks in at 200 minutes that is more than 3 hours. That is more than the average movie watcher can stand. Another fault is the Army of the Dead, it seemed unfinished they appeared in the film and then left within one scene basically and the special effects were actually very bad not at all “ghostly”.

Other than those two problems, I believe that The Return of the King is an excellent film that has very few faults. With great acting, lighting, set pieces and great special effects for Gollum. It will go down in film history as one of the greatest films of all time. I would give The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King a 9.5/10.

O.S