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The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv
Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, Andy Serkis |
| MPAA Rated: |
PG-13 |
| Released By: |
New Line
Cinema |
| Web Site: |
www.lordoftherings.net |
| Kiddie Movie: |
There's a lot of violence, so not
too young. |
| Date Movie: |
If they're into this type of
movie. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
Nah. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
Lots of it. |
| Action: |
Lots of it. |
| Laughs: |
Some good chuckles. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
The spider scene was intense. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
"That still only counts as one!" |
| Directed By: |
Peter Jackson |
| Produced By: |
Peter Jackson, Barrie M. Osborne,
Robert Shaye, Fran Walsh |
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The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
A Movie Review |
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Sometimes I wonder if there is even a point to writing
a review, especially when it is for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return
of the King." If you’ve seen the first two installments you’ll be
going to see the movie anyway, and if you haven’t, you’ll probably go
anyway out of curiosity. Oh well, here’s a review anyway.As "The
Return of the King" was ending, a couple of things occurred to me. One
was that it was a great movie, especially since it lasted almost 3 ½
hours and it really didn’t feel like that, and two, The Lord of the
Rings trilogy was set up as a winner from the get go, whereas The
Matrix trilogy pretty much couldn’t match up to the heights of its
first installment. More on that later, let’s get to the King.
"The Return of the King" picks up with our friends, Frodo and Sam,
still trudging along with Gollum to destroy the ring at Mount Doom.
We’ve also got the other folks, namely Gandalf and Aragorn, preparing
for the battle to end all battles. There’s a power struggle for
control, Aragorn is eventually given the sword of the king, and we get
one hell of a battle. People fight, some die, some live, and peace is
restored to middle earth. Isn’t that all you really need to know? If
you read the books you know the outcome, and if you didn’t, you want
to be surprised, so I’m leaving my story synopsis at that.
What I will say, though, is that "Return of the King" was one of
the best films I have ever seen. It wrapped up a story that needed
closure, visually it was as good as anything I’ve ever seen, and
you’ve got to give ultimate credit to the folks who cast this movie
because everyone was fantastic.
So I’ll wrap up this review with my final explanation of why I
think The Matrix failed and why The Lord of the Rings concluded with
the grandeur that it did. This is all based on one assumption, and
that was that The Matrix wasn’t really written to become all three
films. It seemed more like they made the first movie not really
knowing if it would become the powerhouse it would inevitably become.
There were probably ideas on how to continue the movie if need be, but
they would wrap up the first one in case there wouldn’t be a sequel.
All of a sudden they had to figure out a way to really conclude the
movie, so they kind of made it up to reach a conclusion. That left
most who saw the movie wondering what kind of crap they kept coming up
with. Visually cool, but the story was totaling lacking in coherence.
With The Lord of the Rings, however, the story was already written,
masterfully written at that, and written with the conception at the
start of how the story would logically progress. All that was needed
was a director with the vision to bring the books to life, and that
was accomplished greatly by Peter Jackson. I don’t know if that makes
any sense, but it does to me. Oh well.
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" is a fabulous
movie, although I will admit it isn’t for everyone. In any case I’m
still giving the movie 5 stars out of 5. A great ending to a fabulous
franchise.
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!! |
