More of the same (which means it's very very good)

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2004)

CONTAINS SPOILERS
Peter Jackson finally concludes his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy with "The Return of the King". As could be expected, the movie is about the same as the first two installments in the series, which in this case is of course of good thing.
Like the other movies, "RotK" looks absolutely marvellous. The landscapes are beautiful, as are the special effects and architecture. There are still a couple of "fake" moments, but over 95% of the time it's completely convincing. The mass battle scenes, already the highlight in "Two Towers", are even more spectacular this time around.
In addition to great action scenes, the movie offers a lot of suspense and a feeling of impending doom, and even though many of the characters are quite flat the movie does manage to really make you care about them. The relationship between Frodo, Sam and Gollem is particularly well done.
Still, there are some small downsides to this movie. For one, I still think there are too much coincidences and very lucky last-minute escapes/rescues in the movie. The way the battle for Minas Tirith is finally won is an anticlimax (it just feels cheap), as is the ease with which Sam and Frodo simply march into Mordor and destroy the One Ring right under Sauron's nose. I also think the ending gets drawn out way too much...the movie should have ended after the coronation of Aragorn, instead of boring us to death with 20 pointless minutes of tying up loose ends.
In the end though, "Return of the King" is a worthy conclusion of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The story has a bit too many flaws, but its execution is (except for the very end) nearly perfect and results in a spectacular, beautiful, suspenseful and very touching movie.
***1/2 out of **** stars