A perfect ending

Rating: 10/10 (7 November 2004)

Extraordinary, brilliant, thrilling, beautiful and masterful. Some of the words that sum up this film. The Return of the King completes what has become the greatest film trilogy of all time. True the Godfather Trilogy is outstanding too and the (original) Starwars Trilogy was sublime and the Matrix Trilogy was stellar but they all pale in comparison to this trilogy which has become modern classics after only one year and one can already begin to look forward to the day Peter Jackson makes The Hobbit.
Well back to The Return of the King. This film is outstanding in so many ways it is hard to figure out where to begin. OK, the cast: They all play brilliantly though some better than others. I think Ian McKellen has been the most consistent of the actors in all the three films. He was without a doubt worthy of the Oscar he didn't for Gandalf the Grey and he was great as Gandalf the White but unfortunately the character of Gandalf isn't in the second for enough time to truly show his qualities. However, in the third film we get to see Gandalf the White much more than we did in the second film and Ian McKellen's performance (though not as good as in the first film) is sublime. He plays with experience and variety worthy of even the greatest actors. Also Andy Serkis, who plays Gollum, is pure genius. How he does the voice is beyond me and one kind of feels sorry for him that he didn't get his own real performance in the film. Viggo Mortensen plays well in this film as he did in the previous films but there isn't to much variety in his acting and I could imagine I would get tired of him if I had to look and listen to him for any more time than he is on the screen. Elijah Wood plays very well I'd even say better than in the first two films and his chemistry with Sean Astin is very good. Orlando Bloom doesn't say much in the film (fortunately) because he really is not a very good actor he just looks the part. John-Rhys Davies plays well in the third film as he did in the first two films and I was happy that they toned down on the dwarf jokes. Bernard Hill is also a very fine actor who plays his part and then dies when he has to. Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd play the characters who probably change the most during the films aside from Elijah Wood and they do so with humor and confidence witch makes them a joy to watch.
The effects in the film are probably the best I've ever seen and I think they are so good that they will be valid for at least another 50 years. Especially the Gollum character continues to amaze me.
All in all a brilliant ending to a brilliant saga.