"This is no place for a Hobbit."

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2005)

If you were to watch the three Lord of the Rings movies in a row, back-to-back, you would have to be in some pain, not going to the bathroom for nearly 10 hours cannot be good for you. And so it ends in The Return of the King, where we have final fights, final chances of redemption, and final chances for Frodo to either carry out his duty of destroying the ring at Mt. Doom in Mordor or failing and giving into the power of the ring. The film starts by telling the story of how Gollum originally comes in contact with the ring, and we see the evolution of his body as the ring takes over, it is truly disturbing, which is of course the point. Will the same thing take over Frodo? When not watching the efforts of the hobbits Frodo and Sam, we see Aragon, Gandalf, and all the rest of the familiar characters setting up a defense of Gondor at the steps of Mordor (if you followed that sentence, then you are a true fan of the series). And therein lies the problem, but the time we get to the end, only the true fans of the Lord of the Rings films benefit from experiencing this film. No one who had no interest in the first two films would have much interest in The Return of the King. The final struggle between a man and himself is the most interesting part of the movie, again we have a massive battle sequence that goes on and on a bit, but has a few light moments, the battle between elf and dwarf is never done. Then there is the final 20 minutes, or what I like to call "wrap-up central." While the three films in the series tells of a few months of action, the final 20 minutes of the movie tells 4 years worth of stories. I kind of wish there was a mystery to what happened next, like in Pulp Fiction, is Jules still walking the Earth. Instead, we see what happens, and I feel cheated. What can I do though? Just accept it and move on, I suppose. Will we ever see such an ambitious series such as the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Probably not in the same fashion, where three films were shot all at once, then released one year apart. But Peter Jackson did pull it off, and now he's got enough Oscars to fill a boat. Good for him! We'll see him next with King Kong in a few years.