Where did the Magic go?

Rating: 7/10 (21 December 2003)

The Return of the King can be broken down into two story lines. The battle for Minas Tirith and the journey of the ring bearer. Whilst the trials of Frodo, Sam and Gollum are handled with much aplomb by Peter Jackson with the best acting by far (with maybe the exception of Sean Bean as Boromir in The Fellowship) provided by Sean Astin as Sam the much lauded battles of Minis Tirith are impressive only for the visual effects with the main players mostly relegated to husks at times. Movie making clichés creep slowly into this side of the movie. I feel that Jackson has been squeezed for time and sadly misses the mark on the feel of impending doom. Having another scene of a woman clutching a crying baby flash past the screen in a nanosecond (oft repeated in TTT) does not make me connect with the people of Gondor. There is little or no emotional connection for the audience in regards the people of Gondor. It's missing. There's no myth to be savoured. Minas Tirith is all sizzle and no sausage. The battle scenes are mostly snazzy but not menacing as in Helms deep. Even some of the CGI (the Trilogy's real star!) look fake, especially the scene of Legalos battling the Oliphant. The relationship between Gandalf and Denethor and the people of Gondor is not explained or even broached but Peter Jackson (Maybe the extended version).
Although, there are some great scenes (Eowyn and Merry fighting the Lord of the Nazgul) there are some clunkers. The army of the dead look like left over CGI from The Frighteners. The lighting of the Beacons of Gondor look as if even Sir Edmund Hillary (sorry but Jackson is not even a pimple on the backside of New Zealand's greatest ever citizen no matter what the hype or our Prime Minister tries to tell us) would be hard pressed to scale the peaks where they are lighted! Visually snazzy but looks like an Air NZ tourism commercial.
However, the movie's true highlight is the journey to the Cracks of Doom. The interacting between the Frodo, Sam and Gollum is great (even though Jackson takes liberties with the book). Shelob is amazing. Minas Morgul great. Everything works well here and Sean Astin provides some real emotion. The ascent of Mount Doom and the casting of the ring into the Cracks of Doom are handled well. Although, Mordor seems to shrink in size and time and travel is not handled particularly effectively by Jackson where things seem to happen all in the space of a couple of movie minutes with the moving of the army of Gondor and Rohan to the black gates and Frodo and Sam moving from the Cirith Ungol to Mount Doom. Mordor seems small because Jackson almost always shows Barad-dur and Mount doom very close to one another and they never look very far away from wherever they are viewed. Whether that be the Black Gates or Cirith Ungol. You lose the perspective of the formidable journey undertaken by Frodo and Sam.
Overall I rate this movie as a good movie but not very good or great mostly because it's disappointing in making the audience believe in the myth of Middle Earth. It's got an air of the contrived or hollowness about a lot of the Minas Tirith story arc. Its close with some great scenes but somehow you get the feeling that its taken the lowest common denominator, Hollywood approach at times (lets see some Trolls so we can sell more toys! Or, don't bother explaining that, it might confuse people). Of the three films I won't be rushing back to the theatre to see this again.
The Trilogy is blemished a tad with this last entry but I await the extended cut so I can view all three films back to back. But somehow, I hope to one day see another retelling of Tolkien's great masterpiece although its not his life's work. The Silmarillion is. I would much love to see this adapted to a series of movies although I imagine the Tolkien purists would be aghast at the thought.
In closing I don't agree that Jackson should get an Oscar for this film. His best film is still Heavenly Creatures. The LOTR trilogy will make billions of dollars but let's not be blinded by popularity as a barometer for film making excellence. I think this trilogy has been good to very good. Besides. What does an Oscar mean? Russell Crowe gets an Oscar for Gladiator and not for A Beautiful Mind! I hope that Peter Jackson's best work is still to come.