There's only one return and that's of the King - Here We Are at the End of All Things

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2017)

After two spectacular, mind-blowing and breathtaking installments of the epic Lord of the Rings Trilogy, we finally get to the most emotional and darkest chapter - The Return of the King. Packed with incredible and extraordinarily epic battle scenes with unforgettable, powerful performances and undeniably emotionally resonant with beautiful visuals, The Return of the King brings the epic and emotional conclusion to the greatest trilogy of all time.
After triumphing against the fallen wizard Saruman at Helm's Deep and Isengard, Gandalf rallies the troops of Minas Tirith against the shadow of the Dark Lord Sauron's vast army of Orcs, Trolls and Mumakil that are setting off to conquer Gondor and Middle-earth. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas seek help from the cursed army of the dead in the haunted mountains to vanquish Sauron's outnumbering forces as King Theoden rallies his huge Rohirrim army to ride to Gondor's aid and Frodo, Sam and Gollum continue their journey to Mount Doom through a treacherous route.
The Return of the King is the big pay-off to the monumental story that started in Fellowship and continued through the Two Towers and this film doesn't disappoint. Peter Jackson's direction is flawless - from directing strong, towering performances mixed with heartbreaking emotion to swooping and out-of-this-world, intense battles from Rohirrim clashing with Orcs to enormous elephants to the armies of Rohan and Gondor charging to Mordor's army at the Black Gates to give Frodo more time to destroy the Ring. The battle scenes are so much bigger in this film - from Ringwraiths swooping men on flying beasts to a gigantic army of Orcs and Trolls besieging Minas Tirith to giant elephants clashing with the Rohirrim to the stirring battle at the Black Gates - and the film has the most emotional moments in the entire trilogy - from the Rohirrim's charge, Frodo sending Sam away, Faramir's near-suicide charge, Theoden's heroic end, Aragorn's speech to the final shot in the film followed by 'The End'.
The Lord of the Rings is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, an amazingly powerful visual experience and an unmissable phenomenon that should be watched by all film buffs and fantasy fans at least once just to experience the outstanding filmmaking and breathtaking battles. Unlike many trilogies (Godfather, Matrix, Star Wars), there are no disappointing chapters in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as each film gets better and better and in many capacities outdoes what the other film achieved. As for the endings, I understand people's complaints - however in my opinion they were earned, but we also needed to see what happened to the other main characters such as Gimli, Eomer, Aragorn, Faramir and Legolas (I know they were filmed and will hopefully be present in a future edition of the film) and another problem that I have with this film which is the film's biggest blunder is the omitting Saruman. The two films perfectly built him up as the main active villain (while Sauron is the ultimate antagonist) and in the theatrical version, he's absent and it leaves a very big hole in the film (he is present in the extended edition, but he should have featured in the theatrical cut too).
Pros: The unbelievably monumental epic battles (especially Pelennor Fields with the giant Mumakil), emotionally resonant, flawless direction, towering performances from an excellent ensemble cast, remarkable special effects, amazing characters, fantastic cinematography, the outstanding production & costume designs and the emotionally breathtaking story & script
Cons: Cutting Saruman out of the theatrical cut, some parts of the action scenes could have been cut, we should have seen what happened to the other main characters like Legolas, Aragorn, Eomer and Gimli, the Easterlings (the bad-ass looking warriors at the Black Gates) were not utilised very well (we only get to see them very briefly when the Trolls breach the gates of Gondor), we could have found out the reason why Denethor dislikes his son Faramir and Eowyn's war-cry when she kills the Witch-King is cringey & cheesy