The Lord of the Rings...The Return of the King

Peter Jackson 2003

To be honest I feel kind of bad critiquing this film and after the brilliance of the first two, I was expecting to be wowed again. No one can deny that these films will (and of course already have) enter the psyche of the world. Along with The Matrix films, LOTR has helped the film going public extend their attention span beyond a single film.

However, the film suffers from a tremendous amount of repetition, of course not the fault of the filmmaker but a problem with Tolkien’s writing (I might be hung drawn and quartered for such remarks).

To be brutally honest, when you’ve seen one huge battlefield full of Orcs you’ve seen them all. Yet again, the battle scenes all happen far too fast, as if Jackson is afraid of any close inspection. And call me a sick sick person but I kept expecting Frodo and Sam to kiss and get down to some Hobbit on Hobbit action.

Still better than most films out there, but not as good as the first two.