Epic, Moving, Eye-Popping Conclusion To The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2005)

Following on from The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings saga concludes as Frodo, Sam and Gollum near the end of their quest at Mount Doom, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli raise a spirit army and Gandalf and the men of Rohan fight to protect the ancient city of Minas Tirith from Sauron's monstrous orc army.
Jackson's epic-to-end-all-epics comes to a breathtaking conclusion, maintaining the incredibly high standards set by the previous two movies in terms of its technical excellence and eye-popping imagery, but also heightening the dramatic intensity of the story and the characters to unprecedented levels. There is so much happening in this movie it is easy to get dumbstruck by the sheer visual excess (at least an hour of running-time is taken up with the Minas Tirith battle-scenes alone) but the movie is also filled with fine acting (particularly Wood, Astin, McKellen and Serkis) and many great heartfelt scenes - Faramir's disillusionment with his father, Theoden's death, Frodo's reunion with Gandalf, the return to Bag End. Like all great epics, the film is an incredibly intimate character study set against the grandest backdrop imaginable. Jackson has achieved a minor miracle; he has filmed an unfilmable book, and not only done it justice in emotional terms, but produced stunning visuals which convert Tolkien's fabulously imaginative and original prose into equally hypnotic and entrancing images. A classic film to end a classic movie trilogy, which will entertain generations to come.