The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Directed by Peter Jackson
As armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men. Yet, the sole hope for triumph over evil lies with a brave hobbit, Frodo, who, accompanied by his loyal friend Sam and the hideous, wretched Gollum, ventures deep into the very dark heart of Mordor on his seemingly impossible quest to destroy the Ring of Power.
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What critics say influenced The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Acquiring more taste for human flesh, the Nazgul's Fell beasts (flying dragons) become even more terrifying, and just when you think our heroes have achieved victory, suddenly a line of heavily armored Oliphants advances, much like the spectacular “elephant” vehicles that tore into the rebel alliance in The Empire Strikes Back.
But whereas Fellowship did a nice job of balancing quieter moments with the bombast, this action-packed installment often treats its expository scenes as asides (too many good actors — McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Miranda Otto — are given the short shrift in this outing); what's more, the movie doesn't deepen or expand the tale's themes as masterfully as The Empire Strikes Back added to Star Wars' mystique.
The battles designed to distract the eye of Sauron are, as expected, spectacular with a more than passing nod to “The Empire Strikes Back.”
Jackson throws more incredible creatures into the mix, from swooping winged dragons (think "Reign of Fire") to massive, lumbering Oliphaunts (think "The Empire Strikes Back") to the giant spider Shelob (think "Eight Legged Freaks").
The initial siege of Minas Tirith is almost as good as the stunning Helm's Deep battle in The Two Towers, but then the much larger and more ambitious Battle of the Pelennor Fields comes along and it's kind of terrible: rampant with obvious CGI in the form of ridiculous large elephants (Tolkien, in imagining the beasts, presumably was not as influenced by the AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back as Jackson), and desperately bad quips by our heroes, and the low point of the whole franchise, when Legolas abruptly becomes an obvious animated effect and kills one of the big animals; though it's edited better than the fights in Fellowship, so we have to give Jamie Selkirk (third movie, third editor) that much credit.
The knockout one-two punch of "Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" gave way to the considerably less devastating "Return of the Jedi" (with those ultra-irritating Ewoks).
The battle scenes are stupendous, as one would expect or hope: Flapping dragonlike beasts, stomping elephantine-via-''Star Wars'' behemoths, and a nightmare giant of a spider do their worst, and 200,000 orcs assemble for an attack.
Jackson brings an intensity to the battle of good and evil that makes the stiff, well-mannered drones of George Lucas' Star Wars epics look like stick figures in a bad, Japanese-made Saturday-morning cartoon.
But whereas Fellowship did a nice job of balancing quieter moments with the bombast, this action-packed installment often treats its expository scenes as asides (too many good actors — McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Miranda Otto — are given the short shrift in this outing); what's more, the movie doesn't deepen or expand the tale's themes as masterfully as The Empire Strikes Back added to Star Wars' mystique.
Artistically delivering beyond anyone’s imagination on one of the biggest gambles in Hollywood history, this $330 million masterpiece takes its rightful place among such classics as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Lawrence of Arabia.”
His gift hasn't wavered - a series of bonfires to summon the riders of Rohan to the aid of Minas Tirith has a thrilling immensity as astounding as anything in "Lawrence of Arabia."
Before you toss me to the Orcs, fancy lads though they may be, understand that I agree that Jackson’s adaptations are indeed genius – no other epic since David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia has managed the kind of emotionally crunchy and just downright popcorn-pure exhilaration as The Lord of the Rings, flawlessly combining state-of-the-art effects with a streamlined (compared to the novels, anyway) storyline and some of the most engaging acting in a hobbit’s age – and for pure story payoff, they trump Star Wars, The Matrix, and all of the Andy Hardy films combined.
Artistically delivering beyond anyone’s imagination on one of the biggest gambles in Hollywood history, this $330 million masterpiece takes its rightful place among such classics as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Lawrence of Arabia.”
But the deleted material will end up on the DVD, and at the end of the day the film magically evokes the impact and spell of the novel -- and the completed trilogy compares with "Gone With the Wind" and "From Here to Eternity" as the screen's most successful literary adaptations.
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But the deleted material will end up on the DVD, and at the end of the day the film magically evokes the impact and spell of the novel -- and the completed trilogy compares with "Gone With the Wind" and "From Here to Eternity" as the screen's most successful literary adaptations.
Granted, there's a "Wizard of Oz" ending, a "Star Wars" (first trilogy) ending, even an ending reminiscent of "The Searchers."
The outcome: three or four battles increasing in scope and intensity and a mounting existential psychodrama involving Frodo, his pal Sam (Sean Astin), and his guide and nemesis Gollum, all punctuated by giddy shots of thousand-foot drops, surprise visits from a giant spider, and weird references to The Wizard of Oz.
Artistically delivering beyond anyone’s imagination on one of the biggest gambles in Hollywood history, this $330 million masterpiece takes its rightful place among such classics as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone With the Wind” and “Lawrence of Arabia.”
And so it is with Jackson; when I watch Legolas scrambling up that mûmak, my mind turns not to Tolkien (who wrote no such scene, anyway) but to Douglas Fairbanks, scaling the side of a ship, in “The Black Pirate,” with monkeyish ease and delight.
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Look at what "The Matrix" did to the Wachowski brothers; the last two were like action movies made for CNBC.
Before you toss me to the Orcs, fancy lads though they may be, understand that I agree that Jackson’s adaptations are indeed genius – no other epic since David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia has managed the kind of emotionally crunchy and just downright popcorn-pure exhilaration as The Lord of the Rings, flawlessly combining state-of-the-art effects with a streamlined (compared to the novels, anyway) storyline and some of the most engaging acting in a hobbit’s age – and for pure story payoff, they trump Star Wars, The Matrix, and all of the Andy Hardy films combined.
Then think about the varying quality of other recent trilogies and series' such as The Matrix or the recent Star Wars films, and The Lord of the Rings stands alone.
Likewise with The Matrix, whose "underworld" is not only unconvincing, but it's more of a sweaty, chaotic hell than representative of all Creation.
Consider the very few successful world films that run this long: only Edgar Reitz's Heimat films, Bela Tarr's Satantango and Christine Edzard's Little Dorrit rank anywhere near it.