Fitting end to the trilogy

Rating: 9/10 (17 December 2003)

I really enjoyed the first installment of the Lord of the Rings. It worked on just about every level, and was as good of an adaptation as I could have imagined. I saw the midnight showing and have watched it three more times on DVD since, and it has yet to get old. I liked The Two Towers, but less so. I was tired when I saw it at midnight, for one. Two, there were far too many changes to the book for my liking. Three, it suffered from being the middle part of the trilogy. There was a pervasive air of desperation throughout the whole movie; and without any major changes in setting, plot or character to offset that, the movie suffered. I liked it overall, but watched it just once on DVD and did not enjoy it anymore.
I think I will like The Two Towers more now. One gets the sense when watching Return of the King that Peter Jackson (like J.R.R. Tolkein did) views the Lord of the Rings as one work, one film. One that will not be complete until we have the extended DVDs in our living rooms and we can watch them all sequentially (all eleven hours of it). If anyone was disappointed with any individual installment of the trilogy, as I was, I recommend holding your judgment until it can be experienced as a homogenous whole.
That said, Return of the King works on its own, provided you remember the other two films vividly. The battle scenes are more epic than ever, truly awe inspiring. Frodo and Sam are given a lot more to do in this one; their journey had all of the interesting stuff saved up for the last film, and it feels a lot more like the book for them. Merry and Pippin finally have something to do other than act like idiots, and it brings forth some great performances. The characters of Legolas and Gimli, alas, are reduced to pure comic relief and action, but I suppose sacrifices had to be made. Disappointing nonetheless. Gandalf seems a lot more human in this film, as opposed to the grandoise pomp of his character in The Two Towers.
The plot rolls along very well, and the scenes last just the right amount of time. You may have heard that the end is too long, and it is. Keep in mind though, that the people saying this were in uncomfortable chairs at four in the morning. More importantly, as a conclusion to the film, it is too long. As a conclusion to the series, it is the right length, further cementing the idea that all of this is irrelevant until we can experience The Lord of the Rings as one film. I'll be waiting until then, but make sure you see this in the theater once, to experience the grand battles in their big-screen glory.