Best of the Trilogy

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2003)

I have to try and condition myself to think of the movies separately from the books, because the books carry such a strong sense of nostalgia for me and because the movies are an entirely separate interpretation of the books than my imagination was.
I think Return of the King is definitely my favorite of the three movies. It's first and foremost a visually amazing movie. It's also extremely entertaining. I mean, how many movies get made about a medieval/fantasy/d&d type setting (a setting which I find very interesting), and how many of those movies are actually really good? Aside from the Lord of the Rings movies, not many.
Thinking about Return of the King objectively, it's definitely not the best movie I've ever seen, not even remotely close. But was it entertaining, was it visually stimulating, was it original and creative, did it bring back fond memories of reading the books? For me, yes it did, and that definitely counts for something. Overall I give it **** out of four stars.