Now I understand.

Rating: 9/10 (9 July 2005)

For the longest time, I had no idea why 'Lord Of the Rings: Return Of The King" (ROTK) won all these awards and was #3 on the IMDb #250. Well, duh, I guess I had to see the beast didn't I, then maybe I would. I had seen the previous 2, albeit, I am sure I saw both on DVD, and once again, I chose to skip it at the theater, and see it at home. I am not the biggest Sci-Fi/Fantasy guy in the world, so this was a great place to see it. After watching it, yes, I'll agree, this WAS a great movie that deserved every award that it got. Full of amazing vistas, amazing battle scenes, and plenty of eye candy, we can only thank New Line for entrusting Peter Jackson with this tri-project (when his last two movies were The Frighteners and Heavenly Creatures, not exactly heavy sci fi lore). Anyways, I am sure you know the whole story leading up to it, eg, Will Frodo and company be victorious in their quest of getting rid of a piece of jewelry everyone wants?
Funny how I've recently seen 'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind' and laughing at Elijah Wood's character (he was so good in that), and then returning to his elfin character here. I am sure Elijah will be just fine in getting other movie roles. Ian Mckellan is fine as well as Gandalf, but oddly, his character hardly changes in the movies (well, except the first one, when he's a prisoner in Mordor Castle). Viggo Mortensen plays the mini-hype machine the movies gave him (and quickly crashed with Hidalgo), and he's quite fun to watch here, although there's not much emotion coming from him as well. As a matter of fact, the only characters that were allowed to show emotion here it appears were the elves. And you wonder why there weren't any acting awards given to these films.. Technically, the movie is a godsend, full of interesting sets, animations and cgi effects, the movie sends up a lot of great movie battles (namely Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi). The battle scenes, as you probably know, are just awesome, with a blend in of CGI and real actors so seamless, it's hard to tell whats what.
So, yes, I did enjoy it, even though the first 45 minutes is filled with magical gobbledygook, the remaining 3 hours were fun, albeit, it WAS 3 hours. So yeah! Best picture! Absolutely! #3 out of 250? well, that's stretching it.