Shaun Watson reviews...

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The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King
(2004)

Directed by Peter Jackson

Starring:
Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee
Cate Blanchette as Galadriel
Orlando Bloom
as Legolas Greenleaf
Billy Boyd as Pippin
Bernard Hill as King Theoden
Christopher Lee
as Saruman the White
Sir Ian McKellen
as Gandalf the White
Dominic Monaghan as Merry
Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn
John Noble as Denethor
Miranda Otto as Eowyn
John Rhys-Davies as Gimli
Andy Serkis as Gollum/Smeagol
Liv Tyler as Arwen
Karl Urban as Eomer
Hugo Weaving as Lord Elrond
David Wenham as Faramir

-and-
Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins

The final installment of the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy comes to an end with this review. I�m going to try to make this movie review an actual review and not a play-by-play of the whole movie. It�ll be hard, but it needs to be done. If you�ve actually sat and read all of my review to the Two Towers, you know what I mean.

Ok, so the Munchkin boys Frodo and are free from Faramir�s Gondorian Rangers. They continue on to Mordor to dispose of the One Ring in Mount Doom. They face the dangers of that forbidden land, all the while traveling with their worst enemy Gollum. Meanwhile, the new RPG crew of Legolas the elf, Gimli the dwarf, Aragorn, the Munchkins Merry and Gandalf the White find themselves at the predicted site of the battle for Middle Earth: Minas Tirith, seat of power for the rule of men. Its regent Denethor (John Noble from the Australian TV show "All Saints") must be warned of the coming danger, but he is mad. Due to some mistake identity, Merry and Pippin are split up, as one is believed to be the Ring bearer. Despite all the problems with this, war is coming and Minas Tirith is ill equipped to withstand siege from all the forces of dark Mordor. They need reinforcements, but mad Denethor won�t accept reinforcements�especially from the only kingdom that can respond, Rohan.

With a mad king standing between the lives of all men (fleeing Elves included) and the evils of Mordor, is there no hope for the world of men? Who can save us from the end of everything? The answer lies in both the hands of a simple Munchkin and the one and only heir to the throne of Mankind. Such are the stakes in this, the third and final book of a great trilogy from the man credited with the creation of the basis of modern medieval fantasy � J.R.R Tolkien.


Gandalf astride Shadowfax as he surverys Minas Tirith.
Everything about this movie was great. I can�t stress how much I loved this final installment in the movies. Much to the surprise of those who have read my reviews of the previous parts to the story, I have never read the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Sorry. I have seen folks dress up for the opening nights of the first two, so I understand the dedication to the story let alone the genre. I think I�m going to have to read the books one day, just to see whether the artistic license was warranted in some of the films. The special effects were pretty great and I was entertained; I got my ten dollars worth.

See? I too share the ability for understatement like Gandalf.


CHOICE CUTS:

PRICELESS QUOTES:
Eowyn(Miranda Otto) and the Witch-King exchange words before she strikes him down:

"You fool. No man can defeat me. Die now."
"I am no man!"
Gimli discounts Legolas� defeat of an Oliphant and all its passengers:
�That still only counts as one!�
Frodo and Sam are stuck on a rock in lava flow when these words are spoken:
�I�m glad to be with you, Samwise Gamgee, here at the end of all things.�
Atop Minas Tirith, Gandalf bitch-slaps Denethor and speaks to the Gondorian soldiers on the moment of battle:
�To your posts! Battle stations!�

Thank you Peter Jackson for making this movie. I also give great thanks to the cast and crew that brought the movie to life. The greatest thanks goes to the fans � people who took the Lord of the Rings to heart and kept it alive. Never will the movie be called boring, for it will always be known for giving us the heroes and villains of a timeless age. I can only hope that the book will benefit over the years from the popularity of the movie and transcend its current state as the really big dusty book that�s not the Bible. Remember, fair reader: if there was no book, there�d be no Legolas.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King has earned a rating of 10 out of 10.

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