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The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King (2003)

tomatometer

94

Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 241
Fresh: 227 | Rotten: 14

Visually breathtaking and emotionally powerful, The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King is a moving and satisfying conclusion to a great trilogy.

98

Average Rating: 8.6/10
Critic Reviews: 43
Fresh: 42 | Rotten: 1

Visually breathtaking and emotionally powerful, The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King is a moving and satisfying conclusion to a great trilogy.

audience

83

liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 33,010,271

My Rating

Movie Info

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King brings Peter Jackson's mammoth adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic to a close in suitably epic fashion. Instead of starting just where the previous film left off, however, it goes far back in time to the moment the tormented creature Gollum first came to possess the One Ring. In this flashback, actor Andy Serkis (who voiced Gollum and performed his movements onset prior to the final CGI effects) finally gets to appear onscreen, portraying Gollum's

May 25, 2004

$377.0M

New Line Cinema

Cast

All Critics (241) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (243) | Rotten (14) | DVD (54)

Standing out amid an excellent cast is Elijah Wood, stymied by tweeness in the earlier films but here convincingly developing the character of Frodo as the embodiment of valor and self-sacrifice.

February 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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Pops your eyes, excites your senses and brings you in as close as a whisper for scenes of startling emotion.

January 15, 2004 Comment
Rolling Stone
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As I watched this film, an eager victim of its boundless will to astound, I found my loyal memories of the book beginning to fade.

January 6, 2004 Comment
New Yorker
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Not only has Jackson boldly and faithfully brought J.R.R. Tolkien's world to life, he's created the most epic and sweeping fantasy adventure of all time.

December 18, 2003 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic | Comment
Arizona Republic
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Completes the picture, magnificently so, and all honour and praise are due the visionaries behind the project.

December 17, 2003 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The thrilling conclusion to what has become the film event of our time -- the definitive screen fantasy -- features more spellbinding moments, bigger battles, more emotion and more poetry than the terrific first two films in the trilogy.

December 17, 2003 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
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When I met the barefooted scruff [Peter Jackson] two years ago, he regretted he'd never been to Birmingham to see Tolkien's inspirations at first hand.

December 9, 2011 Full Review Source: Birmingham Mail | Comment

An insurmountable amount of extras comes second only to New Line Home Video's stunning visual and audio transfer of Peter Jackson's exhilarating and exhausting epic.

July 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment (1)
Slant Magazine

If this wasn't quite the best movie of 2003, it was definitely the most fun to be had at the movies all year

August 17, 2010 Full Review Source: Cinema Writer | Comment (1)
Cinema Writer

Outstanding, but much violence and scariness.

May 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

'The Return of the King' wins my respect for closing the show in such high style. (Blu-ray Extended Edition set)

March 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...every bit as grand, as imposing, as jaw-droppingly awe-inspiring as anything in the first two episodes. (Extended Edition)

March 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment (1)
Movie Metropolis

All hail to the King.

May 12, 2009 Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | Comments (3)
ColeSmithey.com

This is a masterpiece of filmmaking and Jackson truly deserves an Oscar.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment (1)
Cinema Crazed

A tale of heroes, bonded together by friendship, it's the very special friendship between hobbits Elijah Wood's Frodo and Sean Astin's Sam that touches us most of all.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

A lot of it is just hacking and slashing on a mammoth scale, which is still just hacking and slashing.

August 13, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comments (7)
eFilmCritic.com

This is a filmmaker in the grandest tradition of the word.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comment
Big Picture Big Sound

An absolutely absorbing finale which establishes the trilogy as perhaps the best mythic fable ever brought to the big screen.

April 22, 2007 Full Review Source: Princeton Town Topics | Comment (1)
Princeton Town Topics

No flabber has been left ungasted by Mr Jackson's mighty battle sequences, nor no gob unsmacked.

January 27, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | Comments (2)
Guardian [UK]

Double-dip it may be, but it'd take 30 years and 40 re-releases before I could find something nasty to say about ROTK.

September 20, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | Comment
DVDTalk.com

Some story strands are crudely abbreviated; others fail to develop elements that were already well-established.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comments (32)

A masterful moment in cinema.

December 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comments (4)
Film Threat
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Lord of the Rings - The Return of the King

A great conclusion to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The battle of Gondor is one of the most breath-taking battle sequences committed to film. This movie is the very definition of "epic".

July 23, 2011
Christopher Heim

Super Reviewer

It was good. Visuals were great. But didn't deserve so many Oscars.

November 19, 2006
wildaly14

Super Reviewer

    1. Gollum/Sméagol: Fat hobbit is always so polite.
    – Submitted by Kevin H (11 days ago)
    1. Gandalf: We come to it at last. The great battle of our time.
    – Submitted by Kevin H (11 days ago)
    1. Pippin: Is there any hope, Gandalf, for Frodo and Sam?
    2. Gandalf: There never was much hope. Just a fool's hope.
    – Submitted by Kevin H (11 days ago)
    1. Gollum/Sméagol: The precious will be ours... once the hobbitses are dead!
    – Submitted by Kevin H (11 days ago)
    1. Samwise Gamgee: You go ahead and eat that, Mr. Frodo. I've rationed it. There should be enough.
    2. Frodo Baggins: For what?
    3. Samwise Gamgee: The journey home.
    – Submitted by Kevin H (11 days ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Herr der Ringe - Die Rückkehr des Königs (DE)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (UK)
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