“Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (New Line Pictures)
After two prequels, numerous awards, and major box office business; the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy finally comes to a close. “The Return of the King” is the final episode and the one that puts a finish to all the storylines which have been in the pipeline for several years now. It is a beautifully crafted finish, if not the miracle ending we had all anticipated. Maybe nothing could have lived up to our expectations.
“The Return of the King” begins with a brief explanation of how Smeagle/Gollum (Andy Serkis) came into possession of the ring. It then plunges into the war between the beasts and the humans and goes full gallop from there. Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), two of the lads from the Shire, are more involved in this conflict than ever.
We also get the final adventure of Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) trying to get the ring back to Mount Doom while being tricked at every turn by Gollum. There are some surprises on their trek that give the movie some interesting scenes.
We also are still dealing with Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) being pursued by the lovely Eowyn (Miranda Otto) while his heart still rests with Arwen (Liv Tyler). This triangle gets short shrift in the film and is just wrapped up with no consequence to the loser.
Christopher Lee who played the human form of evil in the first two movies is nowhere to be found this time out. He is sorely missed. Ian McKellan is on hand as the mystical good guy Gandalf, but he needs an evil opponent worthy of him.
The movie also does not involve the viewer as much emotionally as it should. We have been dealing with these characters for hours and hours of film time, so we should have a huge emotional connection to them – but we don’t. Their heroics touch our hearts but not in the way that they should.
One other weakness is that the film has at least four endings. It is as though Director Peter Jackson was going to make certain to dot every I and cross every T in the plot. This abundance of endings weakened the overall effect.
The film is rated PG-13 for battle sequences.
“The Return of the King” is a spectacular film. It has stunning visual effects, a host of talented actors, and a story that holds your interest. Good thing since it runs three hours and fifteen minutes in length. All of this makes it a movie worth seeing. But for those who wanted it to be the penultimate ending to the series, it is not. It is good but not great; stunning but not awesome; a worthy ending but not an overpowering one.
I scored “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” a regal 7 out of 10.
