Rating: Summary: The Movie of the century Review: Amazing Battles, Special Effects, and excillent acting. it has the beat battle sequence of all-time, The Pelloner Fields. When 200,000 Orcs charge the besieged wall of Minas Tirith. For me it was the best movie in a long time. Go and see it today
Rating: Summary: All Hail the King Review: I just read the review of the fellow who said he just realized that this is all one movie... Absolutely right. Truly the greatest novel and the greatest movie of all time. Yeah. I'm a fantasy geek. Get over it. My wife truly loved Return of the King after just sort of liking the first two movies. She cried a few times. Hell, how could you not? If you don't like fantasy or epics you will not like this movie. Then again, I don't go and see sappy romances because I know I will not enjoy them. But if you have an open mind and want to be entertained, this is certainly a great movie even beyond my prejudices in its favor. Now I'm waiting for them to go back and do the Hobbit...
Rating: Summary: Triumphant conclusion to a great trilogy Review: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" is a fitting conclusion to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Directed by Peter Jackson, the story continues the saga of war and heroic quest set in a fantasy world populated by humans, elves, and other species. Although this is a tale told on an epic scale, it is also rich in intimate character moments and drama. "Return" is full of huge battle scenes, amazing fantasy creatures, and breathtaking vistas. Jackson delivers scenes that are full of visual detail. Every creative aspect of the film--musical score, costumes, sets, etc.--is meticulously crafted and ultimately melds together as part of a compelling total vision. The large ensemble cast delivers outstanding performances; director Jackson wisely does not allow the amazing special effects and art direction to overwhelm the fine acting. The film also maintains an effective balance of multiple story lines. Although set in a fantasy world, "Return" is about themes and values that are relevant in our "real" world--loyalty, leadership, courage, and hope. And in the end it's the moral and emotional vision of the film that really made an impact on me. With this film, Jackson completes what is truly one of the great trilogies in all of cinematic history.
Rating: Summary: A milestone in cinematic history Review: There has never been, and may never be again, any film, let alone three, to rival The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Just as everyone in New Zealand must have been thanked at the Academy Awards, so everything possible must have been said about Peter Jackson's work of genius in bringing the cast, crew, effects and all other aspects of the filmmaking process together in total harmony. But I will still add my mite, and say that these three movies are no less than awe-inspiring, and as much for the incredible tale of their making as revealed on the extended DVDs (thank you, thank you, thank you!!) as for the experience of seeing them in the theaters. Mr. Jackson deserves a special Oscar for bringing these three films to life in an incredibly short time (considering the almost obsessive attention to detail) and in a budget that seemed massive to the studio but in reality was very modest considering the scope of the venture, and no amount of monetary rewards for all concerned could be too great. A new standard has been set for the art of filmmaking. I hope I see even one more such grand adventure on screen in my lifetime. But I won't hold my breath. Peter Jackson is truly the Lord of the Rings - and he's certainly much more humble than any previous holder of that title! Long may he reign! Tialin
Rating: Summary: Worth the wait Review: This movie was truly wonderful - I went by myself and wished I had the time to sit through it again! If you're a fan of Tolkien you won't be disappointed!
Rating: Summary: Finally gets some deserved recognition. Review: 11 oscar clean sweep record. A first. The other major clean sweep was "The Last Emperor". It also ties "Ben-Hur" and "Titanic" for the most oscars and ties the $1 billion worldwide b.o. with "Titanic" by this date. And it's the most successful consistently good trilogy ever completed, surpassing "Return of the Jedi" and "Godfather pt. III". I just had to respond to the recent attempt to lower the rating by recent 1 star raters. The LOTR movies used a lot of old-fashioned model and set construction along with traditional good camera dolly work. There was an actual village built on the hill which served as Edoras. 48,000 assorted weapons and armors were hand-forged using medieval techniques. John Howe contributed his SAG experience in sword fighting besides his main job as co-art designer. Alan Lee's beautiful drawings/paintings became the design for most of the major models and setpieces with some models reaching over 20ft tall. You want "blue screen" assorted light whiz-bang effects?; watch the SW prequels where everything was bluescreen literally. Yes I knew Lucas and Spielberg were fans of LOTR. Who isn't who has good taste in art? Lucas made it no secret he researched Tolkien when writing his script for the first Star Wars wanting to make a space fantasy. The Beatles during their heyday wanted to make a LOTR starring themselves as the hobbits and approached Kubrick to direct but he responded "filming LOTR is impossible." LOTR will be remembered 40 years from now and rewatched as a timeless classic just as "Ben-Hur" is. In my opinion, Star Wars is an alamgamation of LOTR storylines and themes. The Mos Eisley cantina scene is a dead ringer for Bree. The Death Star exhaust shaft is like the Cracks of Mt. Doom. Why is there a "throne room" scene at the end of Star Wars? Answer, it's in the book at the end of "Return of the King". Not to mention hobbit sized Ewoks. Good luck on KK, Jackson.
Rating: Summary: Absolutely Mind Blowing Review: For many of those who aren't already aware, J.R.R. Tolkien was a Roman Catholic and even lived under the giudence of a catholic priest. There are many elements in this story that are taken from the bible, especially the book of Revelations. The Return of the King is an analogy to the return of Christ. The battle in Return of the King is a representation of the final battle between good and evil described in the book of Revelations. I found Return of the King to be ultimately inspiring and uplifting, especially watching Barad-dur finally come crashing down. This movie, along with TTT and FOTR, reflect the constant conflict we have with the forces of darkness, and depicts the scale on which they operate. I find it to be a testament of my faith that Christ will come back, and evil will be destroyed.
Rating: Summary: Chaos, Pure Chaos. Review: If I were called to describe the three chapters of the Lord of the Ring Trilogy in one word, I would probably call The Fellowship of the Ring Serine with it's peaceful shots of the Shire, elf villages, and forests. The Two Towers, I'd call Hectic, with our heroes dashing to and fro trying to accomplish multiple tasks. As for The Return of the King, that one word that explains it perfectly is: Chaos. If asked to explain the plot, I'd simply reply Chaos, pure Chaos, with Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas, along with the Wizard Gandalf preparing, then engaging in multiple battles, with multiple armies, some of whom, aren't even of this earth. Chaos explains the journey of Frodo Baggins, and Sam Gamgee as they seem simply to craw along mountain tops in agony, desperately trying to reach their destination, as every second seems like an eternity. Or as they try to deduce the true motives of the multiple personality impaired Gollum, who makes their journey all the more daunting. Chaos explains the cinematography of the film. In the first film, most shots contained the green hue of tree leafs and grass. In the second chapter, the hue was now gray with rock. Now that hue has changed to the blood red of fire and lava. The amazing landscape shots look as though they should be plastered on the ceiling of a Roman Church. That's how good the camera work is in this film. The cinematographer has seemed to transcend film from being merely a bland, uneventful window into a story world, to being an actual art form. Chaos explains the attitudes of all the characters, whom through the film seem as though they've been beaten to a bloody pulp, both physically, and mentally. Not to sound mocking, but in every scene in which he is present, Frodo seems as though he is half dead, every word spoken seems painful, every movement seems agonizing. Likewise for Sam, who's always-look-on-the-bright-side attitude is battered throughout the film. The rest of the cast's demeanors are all taunt and intense, obviously because through the course of the movie, they fight at least three major battles. And as for the battles, guess what. Chaos also explains them as well. Giant elephants, ghost armies, dragon-like birds, and giant (equipped human intelligence) eagles, not to mention the hob-goblin-like Orcs, all are involved in skirmishes in this movie. All these grandiose spectacles add to all of the battle scenes making them even more (guess what!) chaotic then one would think possible. What more could you possibly want? Something I like to ignore in reviews I simply must mention in this one: special effects. As I said, I really don't like to talk about SF because they are used just too much these day, and usually, are not important at all in the movie. But, and this is a big but, this film proves my two beliefs wrong, with a character like Gollum, the SF does become a storyline, and with hard-to-tell effects and blending, ROTK doesn't become over-reliant on effects, making the movie's SF extremely enjoyable. The musical score is good to, having several strong and enjoyable main themes, that are delivered at opportune times in the film. Though, as my one criticism of the film, I have to wonder if the score would have been better if, say, John Williams was drafted to do the score instead of Howard Shore... But really the best thing about this film, is how all the necessary sections come to together perfectly: acting, story, cinematography, special effects, musical score, and just overall heart and sincerity, make what this movie is; one of the best ever made... Oh, and just in case you were wondering; yes, The Return of the King does deserve every single one of those eleven Oscars. It should have been twelve even; Why it wasn't nominated for Cinematography, I'll never know.
Rating: Summary: BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review: How could anyone give Return of The King anything other than 5 stars. I can only guess that there is a lot of angry jealous people out there. Peter Jackson is a genius and the cast was outstanding. And obviously the Academy agrees with me with me, 11 Oscar Wins!
Rating: Summary: Best Picture oscars 2004 Review: The Return of the King won Best Picture, and Best Director Peter Jackson. Effectively ending the accademies (no science fiction or fantasy film shall receive an oscar rule). You must see this film, I have'nt had this much joy watching a movie since I was a young boy and saw Return of the Jedi. The Films clearly show their debts to the works of tolkien, and steven spielberg and george lucas. Most people at weta Digital either had been big fans of the original star wars trilogy, or had worked at Industrial Light and Magic. One of the pruducers at weta digital worked on the special editions. Steven Speilberg presented the award to Peter Jackson, and most people don't know that both he and his friend george lucas were fans of the books. The best thing about the film trilogy though is that it could get people to read the books, and it opened (good or bad) new doors for Tolkien Scholarship.
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