The Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of The King (2003)

Average rating

(80%)

Starring:	Elijah Wood \| Miranda Otto \| Ian McKellen \| Viggo Mortensen \| Liv Tyler \| Sean Astin \| Billy Boyd \| Dominic Monaghan \| Andy Serkis \| Bernard Hill \| Karl Urban
Director:	Peter Jackson
Studio:	ENTERTAINMENT IN VIDEO
Run time:	192 mins
Collections:	100 Big Adventures \| 100 must-see movies
Genres:	Action/Adventure \| Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Languages:	English
Subtitles:	English
Released:	May 21, 2004

As Sauron gathers his forces, the kingdom of Gondor is in need of its king, Aragorn. Gandalf sets off to Minas Tirith to try and rally the troops of Gondor, while King Theoden of Rohan brings his forces to help keep Sauron distracted from the movements of the ring bearer. Meanwhile Frodo, accompanied by his friend Samwise Gamgee and the former ring bearer Golem, continues his journey to cast the One Ring into Mount Doom. However Golem intends to lead them not to their destination but into the lair of Shelob.

Radio Times

Peter Jackson deservedly won the best director Oscar for this powerful and enchanting concluding episode to his massively ambitious adaptation of JRR Tolkien's trilogy. It also became the first fantasy film to receive the best picture Oscar and won awards in all the categories it was nominated for, equalling the record haul of 11 set by Ben-Hur and Titanic. One staggeringly beautiful sight follows another as the brilliant ensemble cast brings Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece to life, and Jackson mixes man, myth and magic together with astonishing scope and intoxicating invention. The action picks up from The Two Towers with Frodo crawling to Mount Doom to finally destroy the ring, while Aragorn enlists an army of the dead to help Gandalf defend the besieged city of Minas Tirith from the Witch-king and his armies. Jackson's loyalty to Tolkien's over-stuffed text means certain characters get little screen time and the ending does drag on with its series of teary farewells. But these are minor gripes considering his towering achievement in creating a timeless, literate and passionate masterpiece that will live for ever. The Minas Tirith battle sequence in particular will surely go down as one of the greatest in cinema history.

Rating of 4 stars out of 5
Halliwell's Film Guide

Magnificent bravura epic that also works on an individual level: each member of the Fellowship has to struggle to find within himself the strength to continue in what seems to be a lost cause. The final battle ranks with the most thrilling and brilliant s

Highest rated reviews

8 out of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Rated 5.0 stars
Why Can't People Give Credit where Credit is Obviously Due? (to Peter Jackson and the entire cast)

Debbie from Scotland, 8th August, 2006

Mr. Carmichael's earlier review giving all the LOTR movies a slating is very descriptive and informative but quite frankly, a load of twaddle. I'm sure we could all pick at movies that were made from books and find changes and parts/characters that have been left out etc. but so what? Can't you Tolkien 'experts' lay of with the obsessive compulsive behaviour and just admit that the LOTR movies are fantastic even though they did't stay completely true to the book? Wasn't it Peter Jackson's privilage to make the movies as he saw fit? And fit they are! Return of the King was fantastic and worth the wait. The atmosphere in the cinema was electric when it screened where I live. The whole audience gave it a round of applause at the start and the end of the movie and my only gripe was that they trilogy was now over! I'm sure the movies have inspired many to pick up a book for the first time in their lives - and others to re-read LOTR again. My Uncle who was dying of cancer loved the 1st LOTR movie so much he talked about it often and said he couldn't wait to see the next one. Sadly he passed away before The Two Towers release but I know he would have loved them both, as I did. A movie that is able to give pleasure to a dying man is priceless. If you have not seen the LOTR movies, (why not???!!) please rent them, chill out and let yourself go in a world of magic, elves, hobbits, wizards, evil power and a gold ring that is decidedly precioussss...

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Most recent reviews

*** May contain spoilers ***

Rated 5.0 stars
The Return Of The King: The Greatest Movie I Have Ever Seen

AxlReznor from , 11th August, 2010

I've already given my thoughts on the trilogy as whole in my review of The Fellowship Of The Ring, so I'll just focus on this movie. After the gentle introduction of The Fellowship Of The Ring, and plunge into full-scale warfare that concluded The Two Towers, The Return Of The King puts you in the middle of a world in despair right from the off. There is no escaping the fact that this is an extremely bleak movie, made all the more bleak by the splitting of the pair that together have provided comic relief for two entire movies, forcing them to deal with material with real emotional weight. Considering how care-free Merry and Pippin began in the first movie, it makes the trials that they are put through in this movie all the more heartbreaking, and in that way these two characters experience possibly the greatest development of the entire main cast. As the majority of the principle cast prepare for what could be the greatest battle Middle-earth has ever seen at Minas Tirith, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli journey into forbidden caves in order to recruit an army of ghosts into the battle. And if all of this wasn't dark enough, Frodo and Sam's journey to Mount Doom with Gollum puts them through trials that threaten to break their spirit as well as their friendship. And this is before they get to the cave that houses the giant spider, Shelob. At four hours long, this movie is a test of your emotional endurance to be sure, as the darkness doesn't let up until the movies last few moments. It's these last few moments that manage to drag on the longest, however, as every scene has you expecting the credits to roll, only to be greeted with yet ANOTHER scene. If there is any bad point about this movie, it is this... most movies make do with one ending. Five or six is just greedy. Despite this minor complaint, however, this is still by far the greatest movie I have ever seen. The trilogy as a whole is a fantastic tribute to Tolkien, and a grand achievement, but it's The Return Of The King that drives home exactly how fantastic it is, piling on everything that was great about the first two movies and turning it all up to eleven. This DVD is the extended version, including 52 minutes of footage not in the theatrical version. Unlike most cash-grab extended versions of movies out there, the extra footage here adds greater depth to the world, and development to characters that aren't Frodo and Sam (the characters the theatrical release was edited around). I recommend it highly, as I believe this version is a much more rewarding experience. If you only have time for one epic trilogy in your life, make it The Lord Of The Rings.

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