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Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King It has taken 3 years of our lives, and 7 years of Peter Jackson's life to get to this point, so it better not stink! We already got burned by Matrix Revolutions (what the heck happened there?), so you can understand my apprehensiveness before walking into the theater for three and a half hours of hobbits, wizards and elves. I should have had more faith because Jackson delivers up another good movie. We pick up where we last left off, but not all is well in Middle Earth. Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Astin) and Gollum (Andy Serkis) are making their way to Mount Doom to destroy the ring so it cannot be used for evil, but Gollum's treachery is becoming more and more apparent and causing a rift between the two pals. Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) have successfully helped to defend Rohan, but now Gandalf must convince the leader of Gondor to join forces with the other empires in Middle Earth in what could be the ultimate battle to defeat the evil Sauron and his army. He doesn't want help, and doesn't want Aragorn coming back to rule Gondor. Will Frodo be able to survive the trip and destroy the ring? Will Gollum steal it? Can Aragorn return to claim his family's kingdom and defeat Sauron? With so many fantasy elements, the Lord of the Rings trilogy could have become a big nerd-fest that couldn't draw regular people to the theater. What could be more frightening than sitting next to a couple of comic book geeks for three hours or more while they complain that their favorite scene from the book was left out of the movie or that Gollum looks fake? However, the three films have been amazing for everyone, even if you can't tell your Legolas from your Gimli or you had a social life in high school. In Return of the King, Jackson again shows amazing ability to control and craft a movie with massive scope, while never allowing the special effects to overwhelm the characters and the emotion of the movie. Ultimately, this is a grand film with cool fight scenes and amazing special effect teamed with great characters, wonderful themes of friendship and honor and a story that keeps you glued to the screen until the final scene. You even have to give Jackson bigger kudos than before since each film has successively grown in ambition and size. None of the special effects or story would mean a thing if the acting was not top notch. Each actor has to effectively deliver this fantasy, almost silly, dialogue with seriousness, or the audience doesn't get drawn in. Once again, I want to make my case for Sean Astin as best supporting actor of the year. I was amazed with his earnest portrayal of Sam in the first two movies as he brought a wonderful naiveté and honor to the character, but he finds another angle in this film that wasn't present before. In Return of the King, we see how Sam has grown during the journey and become a heroic man. Astin delivers this performance like a master, and still doesn't leave behind Sam's other traits. Serkis is another actor who deserves some Oscar consideration. This is a character that could have become silly with his split personality and drooling desire for "the precious", but Serkis never lets that happen. He is compelling, treacherous and sympathetic all in one character. While the computer graphics artists help bring him to life on the screen, Serkis does amazing things with his voice to make the character real. He has a wonderful ability to express Gollum's feelings with his voice alone. Mortenson gets his best chance yet to show off in this movie since he gets the big dramatic, inspirational speeches a la Braveheart, and McKellen is his usual majestic self even while his character doesn't have any new dimensions to show off in Return of the King. Unfortunately, Return of the King has a flaw that the other two movies did not. The epilogue is much too long. Once we reach the climax, the moment we have been waiting for, the moment when the ring will or will not be destroyed, the moment when Aragorn will or will not lead his troops in victory, the movie should end. These are amazingly dramatic sequences that remind you why you love this series of films, but we are left with an additional 20 minutes or so that isn't needed after you have already been sitting the theater for 3 hours. It's nice to see what happens with all of the characters, but it just goes on and on and on. While others have argued to me that the ending has a metaphorical explanation, I think most people will be wrapped up in the literal translation. See it and tell me what you think. With a little trimming, this would have been the best movie of the year. Instead, it's close. 3 and ¾ Waffles (Out of 4) Copyright 2003 - WaffleMovies.com
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