the journey may have ended, but the legacy will live on

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2007)

And so, Jackson fulfills his vision of J.R.R. Tolkien's story of Middle-earth and he does so with breathtaking detail and near-flawless artistic craftsmanship. Both previous entries of Jackson's epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy were spectacular achievements. "Return of the King" is an eleven Academy Award-winning movie and I suppose it's very worthy of such a title. It pretty much has won all of its Oscars for the entire trilogy, finally scoring big in the Best Picture category. Box office was also incredible, this film is the second biggest hit worldwide, just barely behind James Cameron's superb film "Titanic".
"Return of the King" is the conclusion of the trilogy. The stories of Frodo, Gandalf, Sam, Aragorn, and the others comes to a close as the characters all meet their fates. The final battle against the dreaded Sauron begins and there are numerous, almost countless battle sequences throughout the film using combinations of live-action actors in costumes and makeup, and state-of-the-art flawless visual effects created through months of hard work. The giant deranged elephants, trolls, and the sadistic Gollum are all incredibly convincing despite the fact that they are simply an illusion put on the film screen. Sometimes you might be able to guess that they are CGI, but Jackson's skills at directing a medieval battle sequence draws you into the action too much to pay any attention to the detail of the graphics. And you have to look hard to find any possible flaws or weak points.
The Lord of the Rings is an amazing film trilogy, definitely one the best, ranking amongst others such as "Star Wars". "Return of the King" is an amazing achievement as well. Perhaps its only flaw is the excessive running time at nearly four hours in length. Still, that does not make it a disappointment in any way. That is unless you want it to be extremely faithful to Tolkien's original work. For me, it's a great movie.