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

I think that I can appreciate The Lord of the Rings as a complete, 9-hour film instead of a 3-part, 3-hour-per-part series. You cannot watch these three films as three films in a trilogy as one would with the Star Wars films. It is one single film. And if it was released as a single 9-hour film, it would easily crack my top ten. But sadly, no. I do understand why it wouldn’t be a great decision to release a 9-hour film, but that is on a commercial aspect, not a critical one. I was talking with my friend, who had seen Contagion a day or so after I did. I really liked the film; he did not. But we both agreed that the movie would have been better if it was about 3 hours long. Will everybody go see a 3-hour movie? No, but it would make a better film. Picking up where the last part, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, left off, we follow hobbits Sam (Sean Astin), Frodo (Eljah Wood), and the devious former-hobbit Gollum/Sméagol (Andy Serkis) continue their quest to throw the One Ring into the fires of a volcano in Mordor, while Gollum pits Frodo and Sam against each other, trying to get the ring for himself. Meanwhile, the evil lord Sauron plans to finish his conquest of Middle-Earth, while Gondor is being defended by Gandalf the White (Ian “Magneto” McKellen), and the new king Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson), who summons an army of the dead to fight with Gandalf. If they lose this battle, the hobbit duo won’t be able to destroy the One Ring, and Sauron will have complete and utter control over Middle-Earth. I am such a dork. What I love about this series is that it is made by people who want a real adaptation. They want to make an epic fantasy film. And that is what they made. Peter Jackson has grown from a genre filmmaker of horror and comedy to an epic filmmaker unlike any other. With these films, King Kong, and the upcoming two-part Hobbit film coming up, Peter Jackson truly has become one of the greatest epic filmmakers of our generation. There is a reason this movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture. There’s a reason the previous two films were nominated for the same award. Because all these films are amazing.
9.5/10