Hail to the King!

Rating: 8/10 (13 January 2009)

"The Return of the King", the third and final film in the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, has two distinct story threads. One centres on Frodo, Sam & Gollum as they trek ever closer to Mount Doom while the other centres on the last stand of the humans of Middle Earth versus Sauron's army. Here the epic story ends in spectacular fashion with one of the most immense battles ever committed to celluloid.
The cast is nearly unchanged from the previous film. Once again the actors deliver solid performances, even if no-one in particular is worth singling out.
Thankfully, the script shows an improvement over the previous film. There are indeed changes and omissions, made necessary because of time constraints, but here they fit better with the elements of Tolkien's story that were retained.
Once again Peter Jackson skillfully assembled an entertaining film, this time clocking in at nearly three and a half hours. It is worth noting that he managed to win a Best Director Oscar for his efforts. The film also won ten other Oscars, including Best Picture. This eleven-Oscar haul is a record shared with "Ben-Hur" & "Titanic", by the way.
In the end, though, I still think that the first film in the trilogy is the best. In fact, I suspect that part of this film's Oscar success was due to the first film's unwarranted lack of recognition a couple of years earlier. However, it cannot be denied that the final installment is indeed a fine film in it's own right and worthy of the coveted Best Picture Oscar.