Peter Jackson's truly epic Lord of the Rings film finally draws to a close with the massive spectacle of part three, The Return of the King. The film has a big job to do, with plenty of story threads to tie up, but it does it magnificently. All attention will be on the enormous and hugely impressive battle scenes, but The Return of the King manages to be enormously affecting on an emotional level too. The strong ensemble turn in some of their best performances, with every character having a moment to shine. While in The Two Towers the traditional heroics of Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) et al were the standout, here they take somewhat of a backseat to Elijah Wood and Sean Astin, who deliver their best performances of the film here. Along with the still scarily impressive Andy Serkis as Gollum, they create some of the best non-action scenes of the film.
Although it is consistently engrossing the film does slightly drag in the middle. However this is all made up for in the final hour, which is truly magnificent. The final resolutions are so finely put together they are not at all jarring, instead generating the most wonderful, heart-rending scenes of the trilogy. Overall, a total triumph: everything I expected of it and more, truly displaying how awesome these films have been and the extent of Jackson's achievement in creating such a great film from such difficult and lengthly source material. The Return of the King completes The Lord of the Rings into a single film, which must be seen as one of the finest epics of our time, as well as one of the best films of recent years.
*****