A Fond Farewell

Rating: 9/10 (17 November 2018)

This review contains spoilers.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the sequel to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The movie is the concluding movie to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The movie premiered in 2003 and features the same cast from the previous movies. The movie continues where the previous movie left off.
Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee, and Gollum, are lead into Mordor. The trio are beset with internal conflicts started by Gollum. The three encounter more creatures of Mordor along with a giant spider known as Shelob. This perspective is the main story of the Lord of the Rings and it is great to its conclusion here. The pair of Hobbits were completely different characters from the beginning of the trilogy to the end. Frodo and Samwise go from isolationist hobbits to embracing the adventure and sacrifice needed to bring The One Ring to Mount Doom. It was heartwarming to see these two friends not give up on each other when hope seemed lost. Both Sean Astin and Elijah Wood, do a good performance here. I could see that the two are proud of their performance.
The other plot concerns the defense of Minas Tirith in Gondor as Mordor seeks to end the age of men. This story follows Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, King Theoden, Eomer, and Arwen. This story features a desperate defense of the multi-layered city of Minas Tirith and a quest to give more time to Frodo and Samwise. This entire story is incredibly epic. The directing by Peter Jackson is some of the best with the Battle of Pelennor Fields being a highlight. There is nothing that this story does wrong from a narrative or visual standpoint. The battles in this movie are worth the price of an admission alone.
The only weakness of the movie is perhaps the ending being overly long. I could feel that this part of the movie became almost pointless. Once The One Ring was destroyed, the movie, transitioned into its epilogue. The movie let the audience see the characters one final time before concluding. This conclusion brought a somber conclusion to the story rather than an abrupt one. The story did however focus on Frodo and his reaction to the end of the journey. This helped the story conclude as we could see the effects the journey had on Frodo Baggins. I personally enjoyed this conclusion towards the end.
The extended cut is highly recommended over the theatrical cut. The extended cut offers many cool scenes and develops an already rich world. The extended cut is still only for fans and anyone watching the movie passively will not get much out of it.
I highly recommend The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Grade: A

The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy is one of the best movie trilogies. This trilogy will truly stand the test of time as both a cinematic and technical marvel. Although the weakest movie is The Two Towers this is not a weak movie by any stretch. Each of the movies contributed to each other in meaningful ways and Peter Jackson should be applauded for keeping the three movies at such high quality.
Grade: A