A worthy end to the most phenomenal trilogy ever

Rating: Null/10 (22 January 2004)

My first words after leaving a screening of The Return of the King were "I think we have just seen the Star Wars trilogy surpassed."
And I stand by it. This movie in all respects equals and in some places exceeds the Olympian standards set by the first two. All the characters (except Gimli, for some reason) get a proper farewell treatment, and even with most of the movie being taken up by Aragorn, the grand finale still reminds us that Frodo is in fact the star. The Arwen/Aragorn love story is brought to conclusion in a scene so brilliant that it may even redeem the thread in the eyes of all those who have spent the last two years criticizing it (to whom I say: it was only ever a subplot anyway). The only new character introduced, Denethor, provides some excellent scenes, which flesh out Faramir's character excellently. And best of all, after being frustratingly absent from much of The Two Towers, Gandalf is back with a vengeance.
As every single reviewer before me has said, the Pelennor Fields battle is amazing. Occasionally the multiple-supercomputers-worth of CGI does become glaringly apparent, but only at their most blatant moments. The more subtle tricks, of which there are also quite a few, are completely invisible. The close combat, the catapults, the towers, the Mumakil, Minas Tirith, etc., it's all perfect. What's more, my initial reaction to the film seems even more justified because there are more than a few scenes in the whole sequence that seem very closely modeled on moments from Star Wars. You'll know them when you see them. It's as if Peter Jackson is flaunting his superiority over George Lucas (and after seeing Attack of the Clones, I can't hold it against him).
It's not perfect, of course, but nothing ever is. The protracted ending really didn't bother me -- it would have been much less good without it -- but what did was the actual climax. Frodo and Sam's final trek across Mordor and ascent up and into Mount Doom just seemed much too compressed, and more juice could have been wrung from the battle at the gates of Mordor than was. The unrequited love of Eowyn for Aragorn didn't conclude with much effect.
But in the final analysis, it's impossible to argue that the flaws can bog down the final product. It sweeps away all its current competition except The Last Samurai, and I sincerely doubt that Nathan Algren will be the returning king at the Oscars in February.