A very welcome Return to Form

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2004)

This final film was all I could have hoped for and more. Let me just briefly state my opinions on the previous two.
I enjoyed The Fellowship of the Ring. It was fantastic entertainment and a significant milestone in film history. The Two Towers was vastly overrated. I simply could not become involved with what was going on (because basically there was not a hell of a lot going on) and it was a real let down for me.
The Return Of the King is also a return to the brilliance of the first film. It is captivating from the offset, with a very intriguing but well realised set piece where Smeagol becomes first acquainted with the all powerful ring. Unlike 'Two Towers' this film never loses track of what it is working towards and it really fills you with anticipation of a grand finale.
The complete cutting out of Christopher Lee's Saruman was immensely brave as he was the main source of evil in all we had seen before. However his absence did not detract from the enjoyment of the film so it has to go down as a correct decision.
There are so many truly awe-inspiring moments that I simply have no room to give them all full justice. The spider section is the best in the film and is only rivalled in the trilogy by the cave sequences in the first film. The creation of the spider may even be more impressive than the creation of Gollum as she was totally convincing and fear-inducing. Oh yeah and the battle of Minas Tirith was far more engrossing than that of Helm's Deep.
Very few weaknesses. Like Two Towers I felt the Liv Tyler character was not really that necessary, or maybe she just needed to be portrayed as a more vital part of the narrative. There was a half-hearted attempt at this by saying failure to succeed in the quest would mean her death, but this could easily be applyed to everyone else as evil would rule the world. If I was Aragorn the blond Eowyn would have been my choice for a woman hands down.

My final point will probably be picked up on by many others. The sentimental ending definitely went too far. After such an epic trilogy it obviously needed to be rounded off well with this tearful feel good ending but there was really no need for so much of it. Why on middle-earth did we need to see Sam settling down with his wife and kids? I don't like saying this but I was begging the final credits roll at this point before it got so ridiculous that Gandalf gets it together with a lady wizard!
No, I apologise for that last remark because this was an incredible feat in film-making and undoubtedly will go down as such.