Return of the King starts strong...

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2020)

...and although it loses steam in the middle, the spectacular battle, iconic design work and blistering finale pump it all up to the quality of its fore-films.
The film is peppered with cool moments, a dawn raid against the archers of Osgiliath has a total dungeons and dragons feel and Gollum is such a schemer and a villain he's toe-curlingly watchable. The Dead King and co. are a well realised, visually cool bunch of deus ex machina and Gandalf steeling Merry for death is a beautiful moment. The final battle flows extremely well, it's nothing tonally alike to the filthy last stand at Helms Deep, this is trained army vs trained army. The focus of Aragorn's conclusion to be crowned rightfully King is satisfying and the right icing on the cake.
Regarding the extended edition, it's made weakest of the three only insofar as the theatrical of Return of the King is the most complete and impressive of the three. However, the opening scenes of Sauron are the most required and missed from the theatrical and I'm in favour of the many endings of this film because after 11 hours of movie, it earns the right to take an hour to draw to a close.