Great Story and Adaptation, Pretty Good Delivery (Beware...Spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (26 April 2004)

The first time i saw The Fellowship of the Ring, i hated it. Then again, i have never read the books and i thought Isengard was a person and Sauruman and Sauron were the same person. After watching it on DVD, with subtitles (due to people in the room not being able to be quiet), i fell in love with it. The Two Towers was also a masterpiece. It was no better or worse than Fellowship, it was its equal, just on a bigger scale. Every frame of the first two were masterfully crafted. The actors were seemingly born to play their parts. Although both movies clocked in well over three hours a piece, i felt none of it dragged (there are hour and a half movies that have more dragging moments). Peter Jackson was quoted in saying that "The third movie is his favorite," and "this is the reason why you make the first two movies." So you could imagine how high my expectations were for Return of the King.
Then the lights in the theater dim. The opening Gollum scene was beautifully shot. Especailly the sounds you here when Smeagol is gradually transforming into whom we know now as Gollum. The "then we forgot the taste of bread" shot was absolutely jaw-dropping. However, The Two Towers involves Gollum much more and felt it should have belonged there. It just seems like Peter Jackson is still dwelling on the issue of Gollum's insanity which was clearly stated in The Two Towers. Given it's an introduction, but it seems to linger on the second movie as opposed to starting a new one (which Peter Jackson claims is the reason why he took out Sauruman).
Once the movie got underway, i was beyond impressed with Mordor and how Frodo and Sam walk through a barren land led by Gollum. It really gives a sense of darkness and that there is nothing that grows as they get closer to Mordor. My hope started to gradually dwindle at this starting point no more than 10 minutes into the movie. The celebration at Edoras was reminiscent of the party scene at The Green Dragon in the Extended Edition DVD of Fellowship and was quite the unwinder after Helm's Deep. The acting in this one is quite up-to-par, if not overshadowing, the acting of the first two movies...for the most part. Aragorn and Gandalf steal this movie along with Sam. Their facial expressions throughout the 3 and a half hour ordeal made me p****d off that no one was nominated for Best Actor or Supporting Actor (guess the Academy wanted to play fair for all the other nominees). I understand that due to pacing and runtimes, Gimli and Legolas have taken a backseat compared to the first two movies. That's not my real quarrel with Return of the King.
In terms of directing style, this one seems distant from the first two. Th e camera angles of the first two are much more artistic. In this one, there are many centralized shots of the characters and many close-ups. It's a good concept to capture feelings and emotion but doesn't look as good on screen. What was so magic about the first two movies is that while you feel the emotion, the camera angles are just right to catch what's going on around the characters. That plays a big part in the sense that you feel like you're actually there with Gandalf and Aragorn or Frodo and Sam, not just watching them from a movie theater seat. There are lots of shots where you can catch the beauty of Middle Earth and all but there are just way too many close-ups. When close-ups are not used, extremely wide sweeping shots were used. This was a really effective tactic used when Gandalf and Pippin were first riding through Minas Tirith (a scene which put my jaw on the floor), but there was too much of it in the battle scenes. Helm's Deep had an epic scale, but was a better shot battle in the sense that there were many little individual battles going on. The Siege of Minas Tirith and The Battle of the Pelennor Fields featured mostly wide sweeping shots. The hour long battle of Middle Earth was seemingly a compilation of sweeping shots. Given, it is much more grand than Helm's Deep, but the emotion and sympathy are no longer present. I felt that The Battle at the Black Gate seemed rushed that also Gollum was on Frodo's back for too long a time and made the scene look comical. The endings, although they got many complaints were great to me (except for the overly mushy scene with Frodo on the bed. The fellowship could have been reunited in a better fashion) and the Grey Haven scene was one of the most beautiful shots of the whole Trilogy.
The Return of the King, flaws aside, is a fitting close to a legendary Trilogy. The story and acting is just as good, if not better, than the first two movies building up to it. In terms of directing, it seems as if Peter Jackson was hard-pressed for time and lost a little (very little) of the magic he presented in the winters of 2001 and 2002. Don't get me wrong, i'm still buying it on DVD and i still run through the IMDB forums hoping to find news on The Extended DVD. There is no such thing as a perfect movie let alone a perfect Trilogy, but Peter Jackson has brought us as close as one could possibly be.