A review of The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (2003)

The third and final installation of the Lord of the Rings films was entitled “The Return of the King”, and came onto the screens in 2003. Watched by millions, it was one of the biggest films of the year, and the trilogy was one of the biggest of all time. So, was it a fitting finale to an epic trilogy?

Story-line

LOTR 3: The Return of the King saw the characters from “The Fellowship of the Rings” and “The Two Towers” continue their quest to destroy the one ring, and defeat the evil Sauron. Final versus good battle
In Lord of the Rings 3, the final good versus evil battle takes place, in a stark contrast to the minor skirmishes that took place in Lord of the Rings 2 and 1. Fight against the Dark Lord Taking place in Gondor, the people of Middle Earth unite against the Dark Lord, Sauron, and make a final, desperate stand against his forces. This provided the audience with a thrilling, and gripping tale from start to finish. Journey of Frodo and Sam While this is happening, the two hobbits Frodo and Sam continue their journey into Mordor, with the creature Gollum as a guide. This gave the audience a slow and tense alternative narrative to the thrills of the battle scenes.

Setting

The Lord of the Rings series was all filmed in the waste-lands of New Zealand, with stunning landscapes, providing an amazing back-drop to the action. New Line Cinema, the makers of the Lord of the Rings movies use these settings, to give the final film an even more epic feel. They essentially use long sweeping wide-angled shots, taking in the beautiful setting for the films.

Fight scenes

As mentioned before, the final installment of these trilogy movies contains the main battle between good and evil. In LOTR: The Two Towers, a precedent was set at the battle of Helm’s Deep for huge fight scenes, when watching Lord of the Rings images on screen. The final movie goes even further while using the same locations as previous films. For example, the city of Minas Tirith was built on the same location as Helm’s Deep and yet looks, as though, there is more space and a much larger fight scene takes place there. These fight scenes are pivotal, in how effectively the film works, and they do incredible justice to the film.

Music

The LOTR soundtrack is a master-piece. Available on the movie’s website, and the Lord of the Rings CD, the score from Howard Shore is stunning, and a must-listen. It adds tension when needed, and can make people shiver during the epic fight scenes that take place in the film.