By Nic Lindh on Monday, 22 December 2003
The Return of the King is just as good as everybody says. The acting is strong, the special effects, well, special, and the plotting is very good. Definitely one of the best movies of the year, and well worth spending three and a half hours on.
My only nit to pick would be the ending, which drags on for way too long. Sure, you have to have the scene where Aragorn is crowned, but it should have ended there. I’m glad though that they weren’t faithful to the movie and had Saruman wreck the Shire. That ending always felt really extraneous to me, so good on Peter Jackson that he took it out.
The trilogy really took on new meaning for me after watching the extra material on The Two Towers DVD–the attention to detail and sheer care really comes through on the screen.
Now we have to wait impatiently for the extended DVD, which will no doubt rock incredibly hard.
UPDATE: Corrected the titles–it’s The Return of the King, and The Two Towers. Call me anal retentive.