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

'The ring is mine.'

★★★

This movie had the most hype than the rest. Who can blame it? It's the epic final to this highly acclaimed trliogy. It's the one to type up all the loose ends and show us how the story ends. I admire Peter Jackson's vision. You can tell he was influenced by many filmmakers. He brings it all in this one. But would I say this is the best of the trilogy? No, not really.

I understand this might upset a lot of people, which to that, I apologize. But I have my reasoning. Visually and from a technical stand point, this movie is amazing, but as adaptation, to a certain extentsion, yes. Once again, the Hobbits take the backseat while the other characters take the front seat. More time is focused on the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, which again, don't get me wrong, it's fantastic, but I would've liked to see more of the Hobbits, which are the main certain of the story. The story itself is not really my kind of goto story, but nevertheless, I still enjoy it.

But what Peter Jackson gets right is the battle, Gandalf, Frodo destorying the ring, and other things. Even all the technical stuff. It would be impossible to deny any of his work to make this trilogy. He loves the craft, the source material, and process of filmmaking. Jackson is the type to explore and experiement with new technologies. Sort of like what George Lucas and Christopher Nolan do with their movies.

The reason why this isn't hitting the 4-star mark is mainly due to my personal experience with this film, I found this one to be dragged out a bit at certain times, and relies more on action rather than character development. But since it all works, I can still say I enjoy the movie, even the trilogy.

The two biggest problems I have with this movie are the many endings and the removal of Saruman. Before I touch on the endings, Saruman's removal doesn't make sense. In the previous movies, you perfectly set up and cast this villain, who seems to be the only main human villain, only for him to not be included in the third film. If you're going to introduce an essential character, give them a proper sendoff. As for the many endings, I didn't mind them because it does get the closure point I made right, but the transitions are edited in a way to make it seem like the movie ends. I wouldn't be surprised if people let off a few groans in the cinema back in 2003. Elijah Wood told a story about how Jack Nicholson actually walked out of the cinema because of the many endings. I don't blame him if he actually felt that way, or maybe his drugs wore off.

I might've sounded harsh overall, but I still enjoy this movie and appreciate all the work done with this movie and the trilogy as a matter of fact. But they're nowhere near my favorite movies lists.