The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Review

The Lord of the Rings: The Return 

of the King

Release Date: 26th December 2003 - Australia

Production Companies

New Line Cinema (presents)

WingNut Films
The Saul Zaentz Company (licensor)

Distribution

Roadshow Distribution

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: M

Runtime: 201 minutes
                254 minutes
                (Special DVD
                Extended Edition)
                263 minutes
                (Blu-ray Extended
                Edition)


Budget: $94,000,000

Box Office Gross: $1,141,982,172 
(Worldwide - figure subject to change)

Plot Summary

The final battle for Middle-
earth begins. Frodo and
Sam, led by Gollum,
continue their dangerous
mission toward the fires of
Mount Doom in order to
destroy the One Ring.
Aragorn struggles to fulfil
his legacy as he leads his
outnumbered followers
against the Dark Lord
Sauron, so that the Ring-
bearer may complete his
quest.


Cast
Elijah Wood - Frodo Baggins
Ian McKellen - Gandalf the
White
Viggo Mortensen - Aragorn
Sean Astin - Samwise "Sam"
Gamgee
Orlando Bloom - Legolas
John Rhys-Davies - Gimli/
Treebeard (Voice)
Billy Boyd - Peregrin "Pippin"
Took
Dominic Monaghan - Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck

Christopher Lee - Saruman
the White (Extended Edition)
Andy Serkis - Gollum
Liv Tyler - Arwen
Hugo Weaving - Elrond
Cate Blanchett - Galadriel
Ian Holm - Bilbo Baggins
Bernard Hill - Theoden: King of Rohan
Karl Urban - Eomer
Miranda Otto - Eowyn
Brad Dourif - Grima Wormtongue (Extended Edition)
David Wenham - Faramir
Sean Bean - Boromir
Marton Csokas - Lord Celeborn
John Noble - Denethor
Paul Norell - The King of the
Dead
Lawrence Makoare - Witch-

king of Angmar/Gothmog
Ali Astin - Eleanor Gamgee
Bruce Spence - Black Lieutenant (Extended Edition)
Sadwyn Brophy - Eldarion
Allstair Browning - Damrod
Noel Appleby - Everard Proudfoot
Bruce Hopkins - Gamling
Ian Hughes - Irolas
Sarah McLeod - Rosie Cotton
Maisy McLeod-Riera - Baby Gamgee
Bruce Phillips - Grimbold
Thomas Robins - Deagol
Harry Sinclair - Isildur
Peter Tait - Shagrat
Alan Howard - Voice of the Ring (Voice)
Peter Jackson - Corsair Buson (Cameo) (Uncredited)

Crew
Screenplay/Producer/Director -
Peter Jackson
Based on Novel "The Return of the King" - J.R.R. Tolkien
Screenplay/Producer - Fran Walsh
Screenplay - Philippa Boyens
Executive Producers - Bob & Harvey Weinstein,
Michael Lynne, Mark Ordesky & Robert Shaye 
Producer - Barrie M. Osborne
Co-Producer/Additional Unit Director - Rick Porras
Co-Producer - Jamie Selkirk
Casting Director: USA - Victoria Burrows
Casting Directors: UK - Amy & John Hubbard
Casting Director: New Zealand - Liz Mullane
Casting Director: Australia - Ann Robinson
Supervising Dialect Coach - Andrew Jack
Production Designer - Grant Major

Supervising Art Director/Set Decorator - Dan Hennah
Art Directors - Joe Bleakley, Simon Bright, 
Philip Ivey & Mark Robins (Uncredited)
Storyboard Artist (Uncredited)/Visual Effects 
Conceptual Designer - Christian Rivers
Set Decorator/Conceptual Designer - Alan Lee

Conceptual Designer - John Howe
Special Makeup, Creatures, Armour & Miniatures
Supervisor/Costume Designer - Richard Taylor
Costume Designer - Ngila Dickson
Director of Photography - Andrew Lesnie
Second Unit Director/Visual Effects Producer - Dean Wright
Second Unit Directors - John Mahaffie & Geoff Murphy
Second Unit Director (Uncredited)/Visual Effects Supervisor -
Jim Rygiel
Sword Master - Bob Anderson
Stunt Coordinator - George Marshall Ruge

Physical Effects Supervisor - Steve Ingram

Visual Effects Supervisor: Weta Digital - Joe Letteri
Visual Effects Producer: Weta Digital - Eileen Moran
Visual Effects Consultant - Mark Stetson
Visual Effects Art Directors - Jeremy Bennett &
Paul Lasaine

Visual Effects Cinematographer - Brian Van’t Hul

Visual Effects Director of Photography: 

Miniature Unit - Alex Funke

Animation Supervisor: Weta Digital - Richard Baneham

Animation Supervisor and Designer: Weta Digital - 

Randall William Cook
Models Supervisor - Matt Aitken

Film Editor - Jamie Selkirk
Sound Designer - David Farmer
Supervising Sound Co-Designer/Editor - Ethan Van der Ryn
Music Designer - Janet Roddick
Music - Howard Shore


Awards

2004 Academy Awards
Best Picture - Peter Jackson, Barrie Orsbone
and Fran Walsh (Won)
Best Director - Peter Jackson (Won)
Best Adapted Screenplay - Philippa Boyens,
Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson (Won)
Best Art Direction - Dan Hennah, Alan Lee
and Grant Major (Won)
Best Costume Design - Ngila Dickson and
Richard Taylor (Won)
Best Makeup - Peter King and Richard
Taylor (Won)
Best Visual Effects - Jim Rygiel, Joe
Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex
Funke (Won)
Best Film Editing - Jamie Selkirk (Won)
Best Sound Mixing - Christopher Boyes,
Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges and
Hammond Peek (Won)
Best Original Score - Howard Shore (Won)
Best Original Song "Into the West" -
Howard Shore, Fran Walsh and Annie
Lennox (Won)

Review

In his moment of triumph, Peter Jackson has finally finished the original chronicles of 'LOTR' by making everyone's favourite 'THE RETURN OF THE KING'. Quite accurately, it remains as the second film sequel to win the Best Picture Oscar and in history it broke the world records for that. It almost ran longer than the classic movies directed by David Lean. The film pushed the limits in every aspect of the word achieving cinematic magic on the screen, so perfectly orchestrated and managing to craft a grand epic mega blockbuster hit. Might Jackson have spent too much of his time and resources to extend the film budget. The answer is no, as all of his hard work was paid off in the end, as he earned the Best Picture Oscar. He also spent mass amounts of the money to do the visualising and location scouting in both the islands of NZ to film the big finale of J. R. R. Tolkien's vision. That Peter Jackson we knew is an actually a visionary like George Lucas when he was creating 'Star Wars' for the public display. 

Almost everyone thought 'THE RETURN OF THE KING' was one of the huge tapestries to the motion picture industry. In fact, the entire movie is great but with the exception of the ending as I feel they should have concluded with a fade to black shot at the point where Frodo gets on the boat with Gandalf and the elves at the end. Instead that they had to include a unnecessary scene of Sam going back to shire. This should have been left in the cutting room archive. When years ago, I watched the last 'Harry Potter' movie (click here) for the second time, a few people I knew thought its ending showed no gradual sense. My truer words describe that it's exactly the opposite to my opinion of 'TROTK's overstretched ending. There's nothing about 'RETURN OF THE KING' than having the precious original cast featured together for a magical mystery tour. Main leading actors featured are Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Andy Serkis and Ian McKellen. I still think Orlando Bloom was the best actor of the movie. 

I'm going to re-watch 'The Fellowship of the Ring' and 'The Two Towers', maybe sometime soon I will post a re-review on either one or both of these movies. 'THE RETURN OF THE KING' is as good as a fantasy movie can possibly get, but would have been patterned stronger to edit the part out of the closing scene. I highly recommend watching this movie if you have not seen it. 

Star rating: (7/10) Good Movie

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