(Bad Taste, Meet The Feebles, Braindead, Heavenly Creatures, The Frighteners, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy)
Producers:
Peter Jackson, Michael Lynne, Mark Ordesky, Barrie M. Osborne, Rick Porras,
Jamie Selkirk, Robert Shaye, Fran Walsh, Bob Weinstein & Harvey Weinstein
Screenplay:
Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh & Phillipa Boyens
(based on the novel by J.R.R Tolkien)
Cinematographer:
Andrew Lesnie
Music Score:
Howard Shore
Cast:
Frodo Baggins: Elijah Wood
Sam Gamgee: Sean Astin
Gandalph: Ian McKellen
Aragorn: Viggo Mortensen
Merry: Dominic Monaghan
Pippin: Billy Boyd
Gimli/Treebeard, voice: John Rhys-Davies
Legolas: Orlando Bloom
Gollum/Smeagol: Andy Serkis
Arwen: Liv Tyler
Éowyn: Mirando Otto
King Théoden: Bernard Hill
Denethor: John Noble
Faramir: David Wenham
Elrond: Hugo Weaving
Éomér: Karl Urban
Galadriel: Cate Blanchett
Bilbo Baggins: Ian Holm
Deagol: Thomas Robins
And so the journey comes to an end.
After five years of production, and
three blockbuster movies, Peter Jackson's acclaimed trilogy of J.R.R
Tolkien's novels finally comes to a close. The Return Of The King, after a
prologue explaining the downfall of Gollum, picks up exactly where The Two
Towers climaxed. Frodo and Sam are being shepherded by the treacherous
Gollum towards Mordor to destroy the One Ring, wizard Gandalph and the rest
of the Fellowship prepare to meet the full-force of Sauron's armies at the
human city of Minus Tirith, and Aragorn must accept his destiny as heir to
the throne of Gondor...
Third acts are always difficult in screenplays, and even more so for
trilogies. While Fellowship had the unenviable task of explaining Tolkien's
complicated Middle Earth, it was by far the most accessible movie due to its
linear plot. The Two Towers successfully added complication and additional
characters, but despite its fabulous finale at Helm's Deep, it was
occasionally quite maudlin. The Return Of The King has to pull together all
the plot-threads and weave them into a cohesive and entertaining last
chapter. Unlike other movie franchises, the prospects of a sequel to the
events of the movie are zero. The success of Jackson's trilogy rests quite
heavily on Return Of The King - and what a burden that must be.
Of course, J.R.R Tolkien's books are the inspiration and guidelines for
Jackson's movies - so Tolkien himself has to share some of any blame. But
thankfully the successful literary trilogy has been perfectly realized on
celluloid. Jackson has altered the ending quite drastically - making it far
less apocryphal than Tolkien's, while the Two Towers sequence involving
Shelob the giant spider has been mixed into the events of the final film
instead. But these changes, and others, do not detract from an expertly
handled piece of filmmaking.
Again, the cast provide audiences with truly memorably characters - now a
solid part of movie legend. Unfortunately, some of the characters remain
little more than background amusement (Legolas and Gimli, yet again), but
others really do grow into something more substantial (Merry and Pippin's
adventures in battle, and Sam's heroism, primarily). Liv Tyler's Arwen
continues to be forced into a rather limp romance with Aragorn (a subplot
shoved into the trilogy by Jackson for feminine audience appeal), and other
potentially fascinating characters spend much of the movie with little to
do. Miranda Otto's Éowyn is such a neglected character, who as compensation
has a heroic sequence with the Nazgul-riding Witchking that goes some way to
appeasement, but highlights how more interesting she could have been with a
more immersive back-story.
WETA's special-effects continue to be a source of much admiration. They
really do have a realism and vitality to them that other effects studios
somehow haven't managed to capture with the same level of success. From CGI
landscapes, rampaging beasts, giant trolls, swooping Nazguls, and the
remarkably realistic Gollum, the studio has become the zenith for digital
integration. Rarely does a visual effect detract from the story, or
needlessly appear, with only a few shots badly composited and distracting to
audiences. For the most part the sheer scale and breath-taking panorama's
are beguiling and enchanting to behold.
Likewise, Howard Shore's score is magnificent and must now rank amongst one
of the most beautifully composed music scores ever created for cinema - a
truly wonderful collection of emotive and enthralling melodies. Elsewhere
the technical brilliance of the production design, costumes and make-up are
without doubt. The Return Of The King effectively provides audiences with
everything that made the previous two movies so fantastic - good acting, an
involving plot, stunning effects, rousing music, and brilliant design.
But there are problems, undoubtedly. While the film's pacing is exceptional
(it feels like the shortest film, while actually being the longest!) the
finale does drag on for too long - with the credits taking an eternity to
materialize. Purists may also bemoan the movie's happier ending, at odds
with the downbeat and more sobering novel. Also, while the battle at Minus
Tirith is a technical marvel, it somehow lacks the atmosphere of the Helm's
Deep siege from The Two Towers. It was also quite frustrating that
Christopher Lee's Saruman doesn't even feature in the movie - which robs the
trilogy of a satisfying conclusion for his character (who was practically
the lead villain in the previous films!) Of course, the inevitable DVD
extended edition should remedy some of these complaints...
On balance, The Return Of The King marks a grand end to what has been a
remarkable filmmaking event of recent years. It's epic, visually stunning,
character-driven and occasionally quite emotional. It will be very
interesting to see how writer-director Peter Jackson's career progresses
from here - will Rings hang around his neck like George Lucas' Star Wars? Or
unlike Lucas, will Jackson break free of his phenomenon and create many more
works of genius? Next up from the Kiwi director is a remake of King Kong -
the film that inspired his filmmaking career. On a personal level, success
with this Kong could be even more important than simply creating the
greatest film trilogy ever made...
DIRECTION SCREENPLAY PERFORMANCES SPECIAL FX SOUND/MUSIC
OVERALL
And with hindsight (and with relation to each other) my scores for each film:
The Fellowship Of The Ring The Two Towers The Return Of The King
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
