A Grand Finale to the Greatest Movie Trilogy of All Time

Rating: 10/10 (1 May 2004)

The trouble with most film trilogies, is that part 3 can't possibly live up to the standards of parts 1 & 2. For instance, "Godfather Part III"--despite having a better screenplay than part II--was doomed due to bad acting and poor direction. And "Return of the Jedi" was sabotaged by the presence of Ewoks--who served no useful function in the plot--and by a hackneyed ending. Not only does "LOTR: Return of the King" avoid these pitfalls, it is actually superior to the first two installments.
The main thing I liked about this movie was the way the city of Minas Tirith was presented as a city whose buildings, streets and battlements were all carved out of a mountainside. Although the city was shown several times throughout the movie, I was awestruck each time it was shown. I also really liked the CGI effects (and this goes for the whole trilogy). I know that most of the visual effects were CGI, but I rarely *saw* that they were CGI (the only exception being the beacon bonfires; you can't set that much wood on fire without any smoke).
But visual flash alone wasn't what made this movie for me. There was also the fact that all the characters were 3-dimensional even in this shortened theatrical release. In "The Two Towers" you only got that from the extended DVD edition. Particularly, I liked John Noble as Demethor, the leader of the most powerful free country in Middle Earth who is done in by his mad lust for control and utter refusal to take his allies' advice or make sensible war plans (one wonders if Peter Jackson & co were making a comment on the current leader of New Zealand's most powerful ally).
The only problem I had with this movie was the overlong epilogue. And given the epic nature of the trilogy, I am not about to hold that against the film. The greatest movie trilogy of all time deserves to have an auspicious ending, and "The Return of the King" is just that. 10 out of 10.