Reviewed by Johnny McNair

Warner Bros. – 201 mins – 2003 – Rated PG-13 – 1080p Widescreen 2.40: 1 – DTS-HD 6.1 Audio – DVD copy – Digital Copy

After the success of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, everyone was anticipating the grand finale. The last film in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Return of the King is not only an excellent ending to the saga, it is also a cinematic masterpiece which earned the 2003 Academy Award for best picture. Originally the Blu-ray was included only as part of a box set, but now it is available individually from Warner Home Video.

THE MOVIE

The finale picks up with Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), as they are being led by the tricky Gollum (Andy Serkis) to Mount Doom to destroy the ring. All around them the battle for Middle Earth has reached full impact as Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolos (Orlando Bloom), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the Army of the Dead join together to eliminate the forces unleashed by the Dark Lord Sauron.

The Return of the King succeeds because of the care taken to end the story properly. For instance other great trilogy films such as the original Star Wars and Godfather movies reach their height with the second installment, but the third films take a downward turn, feeling either rushed or not as well thought out. Peter Jackson was most likely aware that audiences will be very critical to the finale and made sure that everything was meticulously executed so that the film wouldn’t suffer from the trilogy jinx.

The cast is spectacular, and it’s wonderful in a film where there are so many characters yet everyone has their own ground to stand on and there’s not a weak piece in the puzzle. The ending battle is one of the grandest ever filmed, and when Frodo finally completes his goal, you’ll literally feel like you’ve traveled on an incredible journey.

Few films have ever had the impact to capture the imagination of a generation, but the three Lord of the Rings movies accomplish this on every level. Some purist will still have issues with changes that were made from the original source material, but hey, you can’t please everyone. The success of the films has spawned talks of a Hobbit movie, a prequel that tells of the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, which will be produced by Peter Jackson. If it’s even close to how the Lord of the Rings films turned out it could be another big event.

VIDEO

Jackpot, the third film in the trilogy is the best of the bunch on Blu-ray, offering a full 1080p image in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio. The Return of the King’s image quality commands your attention with images so sharp that you can see ever detail in the final battle sequence right down to arrows breaking and the gleam on the swords as they are swung and fall in the hands of the dead. These three films were all shot together, so it’s odd that all three wouldn’t look the same when they were transferred. Maybe Warner wanted to save the best for last. Either way, if you’ve only seen this film on the original DVD, after the Blu-ray you’ll never go back.

AUDIO

The sound quality remains consistent with all three films, so no one will be disappointed. Return of the King offers a Dolby Digital DTS-HD 6.1 sound mix that highlights everything in the film even more. Dialogue, sound effects and music are all top notch giving you the full theater experience. The climatic battle sequences will make you feel like the war for Middle Earth is happening in your living room with so many sound effects going on at once, yet everything is composed together perfectly.

EXTRAS

A separate DVD provides a port of the supplemental material that was included from the original release.

A Filmmaker’s Journey: a half hour feature on the making of The Return of the King goes behind the scenes and includes interviews with the cast and crew.

The Quest Fulfilled: centers on the man who pulled the trilogy together, Peter Jackson.

A National Geographic Special clocks in at forty-five minutes attempts to provide a deeper insight to the story behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

There are a series of TV commercials for the final movie, all in their original presentation.

More webisodes have been compiled to give a preview of what was the forthcoming film.

The films original trailers in full HD on the feature movie disc.

A Digital Copy of the film to take Middle Earth with you everywhere.

BOTTOM LINE

The Lord of the Rings trilogy will go down in motion picture history a classic, and deservingly so. Peter Jackson did an amazing job with keeping the original source material from the Tolkien books pure, but at the same time making it appeal to today’s audience. The Return of the King Blu-ray offers the best picture quality of the trilogy and perfect sound. Everyone knows that there will be an extended version for this as well as the other two films coming to Blu-ray in the near future, but if you don’t want to wait then you can’t go wrong with this one.

SCORES (out of 5):

The Movie: 5.0

Video: 4.5

Sound: 4.5

Extras: 3.5

Bottom Line: 4.5