Altogether, a beautiful set of movies.

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2003)

Never much of a fan of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, I put off seeing the first installment of this trilogy until it hit the cheap theater. The absolute mastery of these movies, however, has led me to stand in line on opening night ever since.
There were a few rough points in this movie that were not found in The Two Towers or The Fellowship of the Ring that I feel must have been caused by editing (which is somewhat unavoidable in such a long movie), and in a few cases some awkward dialogue, but overall this movie was excellent and kept a sold-out theater quiet and riveted to the screen for almost three and a half hours.
The only complaint I heard voiced, other than the observation that with this movie the trilogy ends, was by someone who had failed to see the first two movies and did not understand what was going on, so I seriously recommend viewing the other films before going to see The Return of the King.

Altogether, you won't be disappointed.