Lord of the Rings needed to end on a high note so massive that it would blow everything else it has done out of the water. Already surprising audiences by producing two fantasy movies that were entertaining and impressive on a biblical level not seen in cinema for a long time, but also took the time to flesh out the J R.R. Tolkien book with respect for its fan and casual movie-goers in a way that would make them want to learn more about the world of Middle Earth and all its characters. While Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers easily got people invested in this trilogy, there was a lot of pressure placed upon the last movie to wrap up everything in a nice complete package while also topping its already pretty massive bar. The Return of the King needed to show the world that Lord of the Rings was a trilogy that was going to stay in cinema infamy and thankfully, it did just that. After the Battle of Helms Deep, the fellowship continues to protect the world of men by setting their sites to the last large men-dwelling city, Minas Tirith. Gandalf and Pippin travel to the city and are forced to deal with the crazed leader of the city, Denethor (played by John Noble) while Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas travel to with the king of Rohan to battle for the kingdom of Gondor. As this is going on, Frodo and Sam continue their travels to Mount Doom, while Gollum plots their demise in secret. As the movie reaches its climax and the ring gets closer and closer to the fiery pit, it’s a race against the clock to destroy the ring for good before Sauron discovers the group and destroys the realm of men forever.

The task of wrapping up this massive story in a neat even package is a task that would be difficult for any normal fantasy story, but one as lengthy and filled with lore as the Lord of the Rings would be even trickier to handle. That’s why its very impressive that they manage to handle the pacing of the movie very well; it can seem a bit strange the amount of time they give some characters as oppose to others but in comparison to the other two movie, no scene feels pointless or impacts nothing. Each scene feels like its in the right place and offers the right amount of purpose. The build up to the gigantic battle that takes up a good majority of the final act of the film is given a fairly good length of time and each character is placed in a situation where they are best suited to be, none feeling like they’re carrying no weight in the story. The movie does still feature slight problems that the other two suffered from like the frequent Hollywood-ism that kill the environment of the story, or the dumbing down of a lot of the characters, but Return of the King doesn’t really have many faults of its own. True some elements like the scenes with Denethor are pretty generic, annoying and needlessly silly, and the ending has so many fake-outs that it gets annoying, but the actual push to destroy the ring has a great feeling of tension without having to rely on any sense of pandering. The movie has a lot of great quiet moments, the action scenes are easily the best throughout the entire trilogy, and the endings (though they do fake the audience out too many times) are emotionally effective at wrapping up so much of what the audience has watch. Every character gets an appropriate conclusion and it ends on the perfect note.

The handling of the characters really does rely more on their place of location and purpose in the story rather than on any strong character development. This isn’t too say that none of them actually develop, as it shows that the four main hobbits are clearly changed when they return to Shire, but the characters are more interesting when they are placed in situations that show their strengths. Frodo and Sam still get the best scenes in the movie as they are easily connectable character dues to their real peril and live-threatening quest. The conclusion between them and Gollum is also a beautifully perfect one as well which allows the final confrontation to be far more interesting than what was initial expected of it. Merry and Pippin are placed in more interesting situations as both are placed straight in the battlefield and take part in some of the larger battle scenes of the franchise. The stuff with Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas is where this method of character intrigue through purpose comes through the most as these three have very little intrigue left to go with; Aragorn never feels like a true king even though the movie tells you he does, Legolas is too perfect so its impossible to get into a character with no relatable attributes, and Gimli’s antics are so annoying and misplaced that they border on Jar Jar Binks levels of forced. Most of the side characters fulfill their roles despite how little they are and overall, it feels like every character does contribute something to getting to the conclusion.

While the effects for the movie have always been pretty impressive even for the time, here they scaled their budget up even higher; making their already impressive effects even better and help to produce some of the best actions scenes shown within the decade. There are so many fight scenes in this movie, but not only is each one so engaging and actively feels like there are stakes involved in them unlike most of the other fights, but the scale and size that they capture is helped out by its amazing effects and its amazing budget. Minas Tirith is easily one of the best places they’ve visually captured in this entire trilogy; while the other location have been nice looking, this one has amazing size and a strong feeling of ancient culture, like an old Greek city built upon a mountain. Its white-stone walls and floors stand out brilliantly, the presence it has being this giant landmark is incredibly and its usage in the battle scenes uses its unique design very effectively. Most of the modernism that plagued the previous two movies are thankfully scaled down a lot more in this movie as it just allows the scenes to play out giving the exact real emotions they need to deliver without having to forcefully stuff it down its viewers throats. The levity in these movies has never felt genuine or realistic for the world they created, which means it’s not only unfunny, but it kills the atmosphere altogether. The writing , for the most part, does a good job at feeling overly dramatic and medieval without feeling false and works for a majority of the movie. True some stuff like having some of the characters be bumbling idiots as opposed to fleshed out tragic figures (mainly Denethor) or reducing a characters role majorly in poorly explained rush reasoning to add further unneeded tension (mainly Arwyn), but in comparison to the other movies, its not as drastic.

These three Lord of the Rings movies not only brought back the summer movies which Hollywood managed to kill during the late 90s and early 2000s, but it also showed the strength of these kinds of fantasy epics that could be told through a serious of movies and have it prove successful, which led to other famous names like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Overall, they have a lot of fantastic things about them that helped them stand the test of time in cinema. The story is packed but not soul-less and still features character and atmosphere, the acting and casting is perfect for these characters as most are portrayed fairly well, the world it creates is very beautiful with amazing locations which are helped out by very impressive effects, and the story of the journey to destroy the One Ring of Power is one that can be told throughout the years and everyone can point to these versions as the one they most remember it from. They aren’t perfect by any means; the pandering Hollywood element ruins its world quite a bit from feeling realistic, some of the characters become one-note gimmicks pretty quickly, and it did have some visual cinematography styles that dated it a bit to begin with, but that was thankfully filtered out. Overall, this is a mighty trilogy that paved the way for other famous trilogies, and one that while not as spotless as believed, will have the audience gladly wanting to watch and come back over and over again.