The third and final chapter of an outstanding trilogy....

Just back from a trip to town to do a spot of Christmas shopping and more importantly, to catch the latest offering in the Lord of the Rings trilogy ... The Return of the King.

We ended up at the 5pm screening as the night screening was fully booked. As I suspected we had loads of bored kids in the theatre chatting, rustling popcorn packets and slurping on drinks ... grrr. It made for a very frustrating viewing experience and was especially irritating in the quietly spoken scenes.

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This movie beautifully tied up the story of the Ring's journey and was a sorrowful tale of friendship, war, good and evil and humanity.

I had heard talk of people getting tearful and I must confess, I did get a bit soppy during the film but managed to brush away the tear without drawing attention to myself.

The part that got me blubbering was when Faramir rode off to do battle with the orcs in what has to be the most stirring of the scenes of the mighty war between the forces of good and evil.

Having learned that Tolkein wrote this book after returning from war himself made it even more touching. As Faramir rode to his doom with his small band of riders to confront the army of thousands of Orcs, the soulful singing of Pippen the hobbit filled the theatre and the close up of the soldiers faces as they faced their fate, the slow motion of the horses in battle gear, the lines of Orcs getting ready to to fire their arrows into the oncoming riders was extremely emotionally powerful and I cracked under the pressure.

Peter Jackson has done a fantastic job with this trilogy, I read that his main intention with The Return of the King was to focus on the 'human' side of the story and I have to say ... he did that very well.

Even though there are huge battles and mighty creatures the main theme is one of close friendships, loyalty, courage and of facing the daunting tasks before you with valour and bravery, even when it all seems so pointless.

The scenes of battle were more poignant this time round as well, whether this was a direct result of Peter Jacksons vision or was more to do with world affairs at the moment, I couldn't truly say. This was do or die stuff, the future of humanity depended on fronting up and facing the evil that was befalling Middle Earth and threatening to devour it once and for all.

Having read the books years ago, I already knew the basic story line so there were no real surprises but as Frodo drew nearer to Mordor, I noticed the young boy in front of me getting more and more excited. By the end of this sequence he was bouncing up and down with the sheer pressure of willing that Ring to it's fate.

I thought the special effects were better this time round and the scenes of thousands of fighters on the battleground weren't so obviously computer generated ...or maybe I was just too caught up in the excitement of the battle to notice.

My highlights

The Nazgul make an appearance this time round and man oh man, are they good!!

The surround sound in the theatre worked a treat for these screaming banshee oversized dragon monsters from hell and sent the little kid who was playing in the aisle scurrying back to the safety of mum's arms quick smart.

If you enjoyed the cave troll from the previous movies you are going to love the trolls that do battle and wohoo, those great mean mammoth type creatures were enough to send chills up my spine.

The orcs were as ugly as ever and one or two were even uglier than the norm if thats possible.

Shelob, ....

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As with the other two movies, the casting worked perfectly with the characters being true to the book and very believable. I think the thing that has impressed me the most about the trilogy is that the images are as I had imagined them while reading the books. Shelob was perfect, Gollum couldn't have been better, the Hobbits looked like hobbits and Gandalf was majestic, Aragorn rose to the role with aplomb and was as humble and gracious as one expected.

My gripes

Just after Aragorn was crowned King (yay) the natural end to this tale was there for all to see but Peter Jackson just couldn't let it go.

Even though I enjoyed it all and I too, had a hard job letting go, on reflection I think it would have been better to end it on the obvious note.

As it is, the movie lingers on for an extra 10 minutes or more with images of the hobbits back at the Shire. Even though this is part of the book, I think the movie could have ended quite nicely without it.

My biggest gripe is the fact that it's all over, I feel like an addict who has had their very last fix and I know that I will never again face the excitement of the approaching release date.

This movie has had a huge impact here in New Zealand and has been the talk of the country for about 5 years now. During the making of the movie the News Channels used to try to outdo each other with snatches of gossip about sets and scenes.

Now all thats left, is to see if it gets recognised at the Oscars next year.
In my book it deserves all the accolades possible. The book was an epic and now, so too, is the Movie Trilogy.

Well done Peter Jackson ...