Compelling, Inspiring, Comforting...Excellent!

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2003)

On my way to the theater I decided that Return of the King would be excelllent. On the way home I tried to effectively describe what I saw and what was most excellent about a movie going experience like none other I've had.
The following may contain a dreaded SPOILER although I won't completely dissect the entire film.
The background of Gollum was a welcomed introduction to the festivities. It was frightening how he became evil so quickly to gain his precious birthday gift. Quite a nice way to immediately remind us of the power of The One Ring.
The character development was compelling in the first part of the movie. The heroism was inspiring in the middle and the bow neatly tied on this grand present by Peter Jackson was comforting in it's ending.
Just some of the highlights without a lot of detail. I'll leave the award donning to the Oscar committee, but this film is truly worthy of many winners.
The "great" Black Rider who claimed no man could kill him found out that he was right. The battle at Minis Tirith does make the battle at Helm's Deep seem like a skirmish. The "dead army" was only disappointing in that they were simply so destructive they overcame their foes too quickly.
Pippin and Merry perform every way you would dream they would. Faramir does show his "quality", albeit resignedly, but hey, who is going to get excited about leading his troops into the shortest battle in the history of war. Gandalf truly displays a White Wizard as "Saruman should have been". Aragorn becomes kingly in a kingly way.
Frodo and Sam are simply as determined as anyone could possibly be. A gentleman walked out of the theater during the attack of Shelob, please don't make that mistake! Gimli and Leoglas provide solid performances with timely humor and who cares if Legolas' stunt in battle is a hint too obviously computer generated at points, it was too cool for me to care. Sure we don't see Saruman, but that's life in the movies when huge books are adapted to film as some other scenes that would have been nice to see. Peter Jackson's direction was on the mark and I don't envy his having to make those tough decisions with all of the passion he obviously had for this project.
The ending completes the book. Sure it seemed over and then started up again, but the pace of telling 3 story lines became the telling of 1 story line. The only full black screen was prior to Sam and Frodo's arrival of transporation back to Minis Tirith and it certainly wouldn't have done for a quick cut when one of the rescuers was just seen standing in the ruins of Mordor.
The movie ends exactly as the story of the first hobbit adventure began, in a hole in the ground...and that means comfort!
10/10