Impressive final film in wonderful trilogy

Rating: 8/10 (17 January 2004)

This is the third and final film (For now, anyway) in the infamous J.R.R. Tolkien stories and its hard to argue that this may be the best of the three. The first film introduced the characters and took its time setting up the story while the second film was highlighted by a battle sequence in a place called Helms Deep. This film picks up the journey of Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) who are being led by Gollum (Andy Serkis) who is suppose to lead them to Mount Doom where Frodo is to throw the Ring into the volcano but Gollum wants it and is secretly instigating events that will split Frodo and Sam. While this is going on three battles take place that will hopefully give Frodo enough time to destroy the Ring and these battles will keep the Eye of Sauron busy. Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) head to Gondor while Merry (Dominic Monaghan) stays with Eowyn (Miranda Otto) at Rohan. With the army of Orc's heading to Minas Tirith in great numbers Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) go to the Cursed Mountains to try and persuade the ghosts to come fight with them so that their souls will be redeemed.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Once again director Peter Jackson has given us a film so technically and visually stimulating that it would have to be classified as a special effects masterpiece. The scenes where actors and built sets are blended together with computer digital effects are so impressive that it's at times hard to notice what is real and what isn't. There are so many events and creatures all put into this film that you come to realize that this is really technically brilliant. The giant spider that attacks Frodo, the creatures that resemble elephants and every battle scene are exquisitely filmed. As far as the performances go Astin gives the film the humanity that it needed and his special bond with Frodo is very evident. Even when the power of the Ring tries to take him over his friendship with Frodo is what convinces him to do the right thing. In a film so blanketed with special effects Astin's performance is the touch of reality. So while I admit that this is arguably one of the most technically proficient films ever made I still ask myself "Is this a great film"? The answer is yes but its not great like "The Godfather" or any other great film that deals with real characters and real events. As far as movie making and all the technical aspects its easy to say that it's great but it's not of the same caliber as say "Citizen Kane" or "Schindler's List". I think we should be careful as to what films we label as great. One of the flaws in these films is the lack of depth for the female characters. Otto's character comes off the best but the so-called romance between Aragorn and Arwen was never convincing. But this is nit-picking because Jackson is an incredible filmmaker and what he has created with these three films is really a landmark in cinema. Everything that he and his fantastic crew of genius's have done has in some manner changed the way certain films are to be made. These three impressive films demonstrate great storytelling and filmmaking and they are now part of history. I have heard some talk about Jackson maybe filming "The Hobbit" which actually came first. With Jackson at the helm I can envision that film becoming part of cinema history as well!