The Lord of the Rings story reaches its dramatic conclusion in THE RETURN OF THE KING, the best of all three Peter Jackson films.
Frodo has almost reached the Mountain of Fire to destroy the Ring of Power, while the Free Peoples battle Saurons massive armies of orcs and men.
The effects are bigger, the battle scenes better, and the story is more emotional. Everything about this film is larger than the previous two, and this concluding movie is even better than the other preceding instalments.
THE RETURN OF THE KING features spectacle upon spectacle. The CGI character of Gollum has plenty of screen time and is still a fascinating character of digital genius and totally believable, whereas the siege of Minas Tirith is even more exciting to see than the battle of Helms Deep in THE TWO TOWERS. Its as though the filmmakers pulled out all the stops to make this third instalment the best, and were very successful in this accomplishment.
The first two films were exceedingly good, but THE RETURN OF THE KING is the best of the lot. The battle scenes alone are worthy of note, as there had never been any better scenes of mass combat filmed, and they really show off the programming brilliance of the CGI the filmmakers developed for the battle scenes of all three films.
Once again Howard Shore provides an exhilarating musical score to this epic film, which won eleven Oscars upon its release, becoming the best chapter of the greatest saga ever filmed. Indeed, although the Extended Version is even better than this cinematic version of the film, I have awarded it 5 Stars for being one of the greatest movies of all time. There can be no higher praise than that.