Sweet emotion

Rating: 7/10 (17 December 2003)

Peter Jacksons epic Lord of the Rings saga comes to an end with this third and final part and it seems he has the unique gift to make each part better, even if I still really enjoyed The Fellowship.
The Return of the King brings in fact exactly the things the book did in comparison to the other books. Everybody will be happy to know that the siege of Minas Tirith is as grand and extraordinary as your imagination could make it. Even in this mass of milling orks and trolls there's still astonishing detail that has time to blossom and catch your attention.
The film is darker then the last two, with the Steward of Gondor losing his mind, Frodo getting more under the spell of the ring and a struggle to unite the allies against an all powerful enemy.
Indeed, even if most people would have read the books and knew the full story, I'm sure everybody can feel the despair of the hero's.
Each Journey, be it that of the ring bearer or that of the king shows us beautiful sights and sounds, from terrifying Nazghul to the magnificent white gates of Minas Tirith.
There are but few flaws, one obviously being the fact that it doesn't precisely follow the book. This is however not an argument that makes a film a bad movie, it just isn't the book, but the reasons why the film deviates make for better viewing, as you will be exausted at the emotions unleashed at you for 3 hours.
My only real critique could be that certain battles are to rich, taking precious film time from character development, in particular the characters that are introduced for the first time, and ofcourse Sam and Frodo's quest.
A great film, maybe not the best of all time (as only time will tell) but it just keeps giving, the best yardstick perhaps the fact that in 201 minutes, I have not once looked upon my watch.