A magnificient end to a great saga

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2003)

First of all I must admit that I was a bit worried when I went to the movie theater, fearing that the Return of the King would disappoint me as much as the Two Towers. Well, I was wrong, which I'll gladly admit.
"Short" (in the relative sense) version - The Return of the King is a great ending to a great saga, especially since it includes a lot of material that I was expecting in the previous movie, but that was left out in order to clear up space for Peter Jackson to use for a lot of the fighting scenes that he's obviously so fond of. If you do the infamous book vs movie-comparison, you'll see that this movie actually starts off about in the middle of the previous book (The Two Towers), but that doesn't mean that too much of the material from the Return of the King have been left out.
Instead, all that IMO actually counts in th storyline is there, and then some. Of course, this movie is not a 100% faithful to the original, but it is well within the scope, so to say. And of course the order of some events (as well as the framework for some of those) have been altered, in a way that will make the movie more enjoyable. Remember that watching a flick is in no way the same as reading a book, in fact there is quite a difference. I know that some die hard-fans of Tolkien complains about the details, but details doesn't matter that much in this case, what is important, though, is that the overall framework for the storyline is kept together, and if the wrong character says something to someone compared to the book, it's not of much performance, as long as the effect on the storyline isn't altered or ruined. And yes, the oh-so-tough war mongerer in the book who broke down and went bananas after a time breaks down instantly in the movie - Yes, that is also true, but in what way does that affect the overall story? It stays the same. So, in my opinion, Peter Jackson achieved a far better result with the Return of the King than the Two Towers, a movie that felt like nothing more than an action-flick with a lot of cheap fighting scenes to me.
"Long" version, along with some detail analysis and SPOILERS - What appealed the most to me in the Return of the King was the great effort put into making the details look good. For example, the siege engines used in the battle of Minas Tirith wasn't just the simple "hollywood-ish" rock throwers where someone pull a lever and sends half a mountain into orbit without one single clue to how the damn thing is propelled. In this case, they use actual medieval siege engines that in some cases proved superior to cannons (more accurate and better range) as long as into the 17th or even 18th century. You can (with a fair amount of perception) see the counterweight move downwards, forcing the arm upward, and finally the slingshot hurling the projectile into the skies. Grond (the mother of all big-motha[CENSORED]-battering rams) was another treat to my eyes, very faithful to the description in the book and looking even more imposing than my imagination made it when I read the Return of the King. And although it's name is never stated, you can hear the armies of Mordor chanting it while it is moved to the city gates and put into action.
Minas Morgul looked absolutely fabulous to me, about the way that I figured from reading the book (well, the Two Towers, that is), along with the unholy glow that illuminated the city. As far as I know, Minas Morgul is one of the towers that the title of the Two Towers refers to, while Minas Tirith is the second. One can only wonder why it never appeared in the movie with that name, though, and why Minas Tirith looked more like a medieval cathedral than an actual tower.
The amount of cheap dwarf-jokes have fortunately been cut down in this movie, something that I appreciate much, as I feel that it otherwise violates Tolkien's intention of showing the dwarf and the elf as equals, despite the fact that they are of different races, thus very different individuals with different strengths and weaknesses, and by their way of cooperating with each other become an almost invincible force. This is a fact that Peter Jackson or the screenwriter never realized, as the elf is shown as a superhuman hero without any obvious faults, while the dwarf is shown as a clown who makes a complete a*****e out of himself as soon as he appears in front of the camera - Bad call, New Line!
All in all, this is a great movie, and a great ending to a wonderful saga. In my opinion, this last movie saved a trilogy that started out great with the Fellowship of the Ring and then went rapidly downhill with the Two Towers but got back up on the track again with the Return of the King. I can't say for sure if it could have been done better or if Peter Jackson was the ultimate choice of director, but I know that there aren't that many directors around who could have achieved a better result.
I can recommend this movie to hard-core action junkies as well as the more intellectual Tolkien-fan who enjoys a good book.