Better than Two Towers, not as good as Fellowship

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2003)

Well, the trilogy has ended, and it's time for some conclusions. First of all, Return of the King is, IMO, not as good as Fellowship of the Ring. On the other hand, it's definitely better than The Two Towers, which I think is by far the weakest of the three films.
All in all Return of the King is certainly a good film, but it's too long, the battle scenes somewhat lack intensity and when it's all over you're left with this lingering "was that it?". Don't get me wrong, I like the film, but it does feel as something of an anti-climax. Perhaps it's simply not possible to transfer the enormity and intensity of what's meant to take place to film. The battle scenes are a bit dull, they lack intensity and realism, which is too bad because the battle scenes are in many ways the most important part of the film. To make it all worse (at least as I see it), they try to make up for it with slapstick, kill count and silly comments from Gimli, who is again reduced to comic relief, as well as a tendency to focus on the "really big stuff" (TM); oliphants, various trolls and the big siege weapons, instead of really following the battle. Also, I find the constant switching between Frodo and Sam and the battles annoying because it breaks up the battle scenes, jerking you out of the action just as it's starting to pull you in. RotK simply doesn't do a good enough job of making you "feel" the intensity of battle. Some movies can almost make you smell the blood, RotK doesn't achieve that, in fact there's hardly any blood at all and often just a lot of CGI (I guess the PG13 rating didn't help in that department). CGI has come far, but battle scenes are still vastly better with real people.
Anyway, most of the movie is pretty good, but it never quite achieves "lift off" before it touches down on the ground again. As with the Matrix trilogy, the sequels just don't quite live up to the first, although I will say again that I think RotK is a good, although not brilliant, movie, and definitely better than Two Towers. There's no reason not to watch this film and I'm almost certain it won't be as good on DVD as it is on the big screen (mostly because the CGI and FX are so important), so go see it in a cinema while you have the chance. If you say this is the best movie you've ever seen, however (and it's almost a law of nature that some people will whenever a new LotR flick is out), I suggest you see some more movies. (Yes, I find all the LotR fanboys, and -girls, who uncritically love the movies with a zeal unmatched even by the most die-hard religious fundamentalists, extremely annoying)