The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Reviews
Top CriticStanding 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.
Some story strands are crudely abbreviated; others fail to develop elements that were already well-established.
Pops your eyes, excites your senses and brings you in as close as a whisper for scenes of startling emotion.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
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.
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.
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| Original Score: 5/5
Completes the picture, magnificently so, and all honour and praise are due the visionaries behind the project.
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| Original Score: 5/5
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.
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| Original Score: 4/5
A movie for our time, perhaps for all time, mostly a good time and definitely a long time.
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| Original Score: 3/4
It reminds you of the power of film like no other movie in memory.
| Original Score: A+
I went along with the first and admired the second, but it wasn't until the third that I was swept away by the magnitude of Jackson's vision.
| Original Score: A-
Confirms Jackson's reputation as a kinetic director who has made author J.R.R. Tolkien's work his own -- not as plagiarist but as a visionary.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
Return of the King is such a crowning achievement, such a visionary use of all the tools of special effects, such a pure spectacle, that it can be enjoyed even by those who have not seen the first two films.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
The final chapter completes The Lord of the Rings series in thrilling style -- and restores faith in the idea that popular entertainment can soar to majestic heights.
The film event of the millennium.
This is the best of the three Rings movies -- more than that, it makes the others look even better.
Not only a thrilling experience, it closes the book on a truly satisfying trilogy.
Tolkien and his representative on Earth, [Peter] Jackson, really know how to get a tale roaring down the tracks.
Insanely spectacular and never less than absorbing, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King not only fully celebrates J.R.R. Tolkien's classic literary work but fully explains Jackson's outsized obsession with bringing it to the screen.
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| Original Score: 4/4
The director and screenwriter brings unity to a somewhat unwieldy story and handles the spectacle scenes with flourish and coherence.
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| Original Score: B+
The word trilogy, which was handed such a black eye by the Matrix movies, is restored to its proper dignity with Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
The second installment was better than the first, and this one is best of all.
Peter Jackson's final installment in his monumental The Lord of the Rings represents that filmmaking rarity -- a third part of a trilogy that is decisively the best of the lot.
Like all the other installments in the saga, The Return of the King is part of a good movie, but only mediocre on its own, full of awkward pauses and redundancies.
A rich, layered tale of a king, a wizard and two little hobbits whose courage saved their world.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
[The] trilogy is, by any measure, a crowning moment in cinema history ... So why is the final installment, less than awesome?
| Original Score: 3/4
A movie that exceeds even the most formidable expectations without straying from its singular path.
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| Original Score: 4/4
This film is everything a fan could want and possibly more. For three-plus hours, it entertains, enthralls and awes.
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| Original Score: A+
It not only stands as fantasy filmmaking on a peak of previously unscaled proportions, it now officially takes its place in the Great Hall of Movie Mythology, the place we return to again and again to share our dreams.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Audiences who don't have halberds to grind and who possess rear ends of steel and a taste for declamatory heroics will find themselves rewarded.
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| Original Score: 3.5/4
With The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Peter Jackson brings his epic series to a glorious finish. And in doing so, he's made the greatest movie trilogy in cinema history.
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| Original Score: A
This Krakatoa is at once exhausting and riveting.
A grand adventure with lots of fun things to look at.
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| Original Score: 3/4
As a model for how to bring substance, authenticity and insight to the biggest of adventure yarns, this trilogy will not soon, if ever, find its equal.
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| Original Score: 5/5
King is the product of impressive craft and energy.
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| Original Score: 5/5
Combines the best moments of Fellowship and Two Towers and brings the Arthurian trilogy to a rousing, satisfying finish.
| Original Score: 4/4
The jewel in the crown of the masterful trilogy.
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| Original Score: 4/4
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is Peter Jackson's crowning achievement.
Jackson closes his trilogy with a movie far more humorous, good-natured and emotionally engaging than its predecessors.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Towers above its predecessors with cleaner storytelling and a more satisfying balance between terrific acting and eye-popping effects.
| Original Score: 4/4
[Director Peter Jackson] can lay claim to one of the greatest achievements in film history.
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| Original Score: 4/4
An experience of epic scope and grandeur, amazing emotional power, and relentless momentum.
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| Original Score: 4/4
Passionate and literate, detailed and expansive... it's conceived with a risk-taking flair for old-fashioned movie magic at its most precious.
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| Original Score: A
A masterfully entertaining final installment.
