A MASTERPIECE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Best Picture of the Year!!!!!(spoilers ahead)

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2003)

Simply one word describes The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King...pure and simple MASTERPIECE!!!!! This movie was a revelation in film. From the second that I saw the New Line Cinema logo and heard the undeniable Lord of the Rings music I was transfixed. The film starts off with a backstory of the sneaky, twisted, evil, and (in this film) unlikeable Gollum/Smeagol. It tells of how Deagol(Smeagol's brother) and Smeagol are fishing and when Deagol catches a fish it pulls him in and he is pulled through the water. Deagol finds the one ring and plans to keep it until Smeagol kills him for it. Then it shows how he became Gollum. Followed by a scene with Frodo, Sam, and Gollum.
Then it starts off the first scene with Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli with the words "The Return of the King" and then riding through Fangorn forest to Isengard. When they arrive they find Merry and Pippin and the place over-run by water and ruled by Treebeard. After Pippin finds the Palantir which Gandalf takes and hides, but back at Edoras Pippin steals it and looks into it being completely overwhelmed and nearly dead after seeing the great eye. Gandalf rides Pippin to Minas Tirith, city of kings, stronghold of Gondor. Soon after we go to Frodo believes that Sam wants to take the ring from him and so leaves him behind crying right after the Witch King leaves Minas Morgul and then Frodo and Gollum arrive in Shelob's tunnel where my attention was not dropped for the entire movie. The Battle of the Pellenor fields was so amazing and loud that I was vibrating in my chair at the theater. Mount Doom was a big and amazing scene. Terrifying, loud, beautiful, and heartbreaking. Frodo's one and despairing line which got me was, "The ring is mine." From then on I felt betrayed even though I had read the book. The movie had a bigger sense of danger, heartbreak, death, despair, and finality. I found myself crying from their entrance in the shire to the end. Probably the most amazing looking scene and the scene I was waiting for was right as soon as the ring was destroyed and Sauron went wild with anger, fear, and frustration. His eye moving wildly and the tower of Barad-Dur falling followed by the end with Sauron's shockwave goodbye. The wedding of Aragorn and Arwen as well the crowning was amazing. The grey havens was a beautiful place and a beautiful scene and I found myself crying my eyeballs to death in that scene as soon as Bilbo walked onto the ship I started crying because I knew what was coming and it was the end. The ending in the Shire with Sam was pivotal and key. If he hadn't said that one line the movie would have been ruined for me. "Well...I'm Back" This movie is unlikely to ever find an equal in all the rest of the world and I say that with the utmost confidence as The Return of the King came to a close I found myself to sadened for words or tears. It was the end of this epic journey of a life-time and I amazingly made it through it. Oh, no, I'm crying now. Must go, but with one last word. Of all the films to come out in the next five millenia The Return of the King will stay as number one for all eternity. Undoubtedly the only film in which you cannot say a single bad thing went wrong. MASTERPIECE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....from Sean Astin's on target acting, to Ian McKellen's, to Viggo Mortensen's, to the heartbreak of failure the is Elijah Wood's Frodo King is a full blown MASTERPIECE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10/10 stars **********