The Return of the King - A Gushing on Perfection

(This review was based on the Extended Edition - like for real, there’s no other way of watching this one without being this version)

Given that is the conclusion of the most beloved trilogy of all time (arguably next to Back to the Future and The Godfather, sure), is hard to come by with new stuff to say to the praise bandwagon that has marked the film for two decades now. Well, I guess not even the filmmakers themselves had nothing else to prove or add here as the movie flows under everything that worked in the previous two parts, with The Return of the King arriving as the most rock-solid outing of the Rings trilogy / story; is just freaking perfect!

The momentum is sky-high, the pay-off to everything set-up in the previous two parts / movies is settled here under gargantuan spectacle that will likely never be matched again in modern blockbuster veins. Is the third-movie in a trilogy golden standard and possibly the unmatchable best! Is all out war, doom, despair and catharsis sold under unbridled veins of excitement. Is a four hour third-act in film form, packing drama and spectacle in measure status of emotional pathos and purifying amusement.

From 'DEATH!' to FOR FRODO and BUT I CAN CARRY YOU; the soul of hope looms in the war against terror, in moments that you will carry for the rest of your life in endless quotations. The will to fight even at the face of certain defeat; the impossible moving forward without leaving with never-healed scars; the bonds of friendship tightened in earnest love and ethereal affection; two men friends can hug and cry, can love and remiss (without being homo or allusion to anything of this nature that one “progressive” mind might wanna read or turn into!); The Lord of the Rings manages to be utmostly spiritual in its purity!

Making us gripped in its horrors; on the edge of your seat amazement in its biggest moments; being swept in a rewarding bittersweetness at each second of its perfect farewells; but most importantly: enthralled and believing that good can save us. That it can be the light in our surrounding darkness. Warm and embrace for our next of kin can be our salvation. All taken to epic proportions of saving the world stakes under the magnitude degree of war epic, this third chapter has it all; and Yes is all gush, you won't take anything different from me!

Maybe the book changes?! Oh well…

I love characters such as Beregond and Imrahil, but the movies were already crowded enough so I understand their absence;

Would I've loved to see The Grey Company, the small army of Dúnedain Rangers in action? Absolutely! But the ghost-army of the Oathbreakers with longer screentime IS COOLER!

Is the battle of Pelennor fields actually INSANER in the book? Yes, but the range of scope in having several gigantic Oliphaunts fighting amidst thousands of hordes of men and orcs with flying Nazgûls and a army of ghost is already impressive enough for movie screen and remaining as the most ambitious and biggest battle ever achieved on film – visually speaking, with all due respect to Sergei Bondarchuk’s achievements in Waterloo and War and Peace.

And I LOVE The Scouring of the Shire chapter and what it means to our four little Hobbits in their long arduous journey, having left their homes as young servants of a duty; thus returning as experienced-weary leaders – Frodo’s final interaction being an act of mercy for Saruman, even after everything, is a perfect cathartic climax to the story as a whole that sure the movie only missed by not having it!

The work of Tolkien in its fullest perfectionist detail and lyrical texting will never be translated to its fullest vast richness in all that it packs and represents, and the movies arguably pale in comparison to their original source in so many areas. But the amount of reverence and respect Peter Jackson and his crew showed to this world is undeniable. All the changes or absences are made while respecting the core of its original soul and the words of Tolkien. And at the end of the day, the movies themselves served as bridges for a lot of people to the books, and one can have the heart to love and admire both as separable entities while recognizing the greatness of what’s achieved by translating it to the movie screen in such unique especial way.

One thing I can comment on maybe in a little depth however is in regards to the extended editions. The absence of several cool scenes in the previous two could’ve passed as nice additions and not vital elements – though I would wholeheartedly disagree; but in Return of the King? That’s just facts! Once you watch the extended editions there’s no going back to the theatrical, they just feel hollow with ‘something else’ missing. While in The Return of the King is almost mandatory because several arcs are only concluded in the extended editions – Saruman, Eowyn, etc; and also solve A LOT of weird continuity errors that the theatrical version had – Gandalf mysteriously loses his staff during the siege of Minas Tirith, while in the extended edition sees it breaking by the Witch-king.

Anyway, it gives a lot to respect and admiration on how physical media can improve on its theatrical launches. And I’ll remissive if I didn't mentioned “The Appendices”: the countless plus hours of every excruciating detail given to the making of this masterwork, that singlehandedly could help many learn about filmmaking itself through the amount of creative effort made on every single department that made this baby come to life. The countless hours of planning and hard work that mirrors the struggles on the war of the ring, equally becoming magical as the movies they were making.

And has us enthralled by its details just as Tolkien left us while reading his books! To be captured and taken and loose ourselves in what magic, the written imaginative or the filmmaking form, can takes us. Outside the thunderous spectacle of adventure, war and emotions coming from beautiful inspiring ideals; what lies in The Lord of the Rings is pure effect of fantasy, as art, as a human creation, that allows us to escape, be swept away by its magic and what we can be through its inspiring mythos!