Our main character Frodo could not have been better. He is just at the edge of his sanity here and the burden of carrying the torturing and wretched Ring is just tearing him apart. Easily one of Elijah Wood's best performances, he keeps this struggle that Frodo is dealing with sort of subtle but not to the point where you cannot figure out what is wrong with him. Even by the end when he gets to Mount Doom and is about to destroy the Ring, a mission that took him days or even months to accomplish while journeying through a vast and dangerous land, the darkness and greed from the ring overtakes him and he decides not to. I do not think I am giving away anything by saying that the Ring does get destroyed eventually one way or another, but a main protagonist giving into the darkness that tempts him is almost unheard of. I know it may seem right to call Frodo a waste of time character and the good qualities that he was known for might almost seem like they never happened, but really I'm impressed that they went this in this direction with this character. Again, this is why it so great that they portray Frodo as the every guy ans the blank slate that we as the audience could easily fit in as. The Ring made him give in as it would have done to any normal average person. They did not portray Frodo as a fit, muscle-bound, charming, and wise cracking hero, he is just a normal guy that makes the same and same amount of mistakes as any other person. He is the one whose eyes we see this whole story through.We are surrounded by marvelous and extraordinary people for characters with great skills and qualities that make them heroic and Frodo is the one we can all relate to and can easily fit in his shoes. You can feel that rather going on the journey alongside Frodo, the film makes you be Frodo going on this journey. To me that is what I love most about the character he is written and portrayed as an average person who we can all feel close to. Sam is unbelievably good in this film as well. At times he can pull off being sympathetic without being looked down upon. And the main reason for this is because we know how loyal he is to his best friend Frodo and he does not want to see his friend give himself to the darkness and quit when they had already gone through so much together. His whole journey alongside Frodo has sort of been a test for him, to see if he is truly loyal enough or cares enough for his friend that he would not turn against him. There are times where Sam is willing to carry the Ring for Frodo, and this is such a good mystery because you do not know whether Sam is trying to save his friend from his torturing burden or if he just wants the Ring to himself. But by the end of the film, I'll just say that the answer is pretty obvious to the audience. Sean Astin successfully pulls off the emotional yet strong, loyal, and courageous Sam and we are glad that we stuck with him the whole way. Gollum is still the great and enjoyable character. Instead of the sympathetic and tortured side we saw of him in The Two Towers, we get the more of the malicious side and we begin to see his true colors as the evil and darkness that lingers inside of him begins to take over. Actually in the beginning of the film, we learn more about his backstory. His real name, which I did not mention in the last review, is Smeagol and he was a Hobbit. When Smeagol went out fishing with his cousin Deagol for his birthday, Deagol found the One Ring in the lake. Both of them cannot take their eyes off of it and of course Smeagol wants it for his own and the two start having a violent fight for the Ring, until the point where Smeagol kills his own cousin just for the Ring. We also learn that he was exiled for his crime, hid in the caves, and let the Ring continue to torture and control him as he begins to starve, lose his hair, forget everything that is meaningful in life including his own name, and just overall going insane. That is until he meets Bilbo Baggins who takes the Ring for himself. Though he is still sympathetic, Gollum gets interestingly nasty as we see his continuing acts in desperately getting back the Ring. But we do not begin to hate him because of this, if anything it seems more interesting and it makes the character seem more three-dimensional. We get to see his inner demons that he tried to fight off in the last film, take action. That and Andy Serkis does a wonderful performance as usual, he still succeeds in his delivery. Gandalf has a lot more scenes in this film and we get to have that great amount of respect for him as we did in Fellowship of the Ring again. He becomes more direct, wiser, and even more awesome in his actions which makes the character such an icon. Always enjoyable to watch because of how he is presented of us as well as Ian McKellen's great and unforgettable performance. Aragorn evolves greatly in this film, from me being uncomfortable with both the character and the performance, to fully getting used to him and feeling great respect towards him. Aragorn is destined for greatness in this film and judging from his actions and values presented, he more than deserves it. We grow with and experience the evolution of Aragorn and Viggo Mortensen's performance that definitely gets better and better. Legolas, portrayed by Orlando Bloom, of course still plays the likeable supportive character. And of course the action scenes involving the character are still enjoyable and fun to watch. Gimli, again is as always fun to watch and it is also fun to see him and Legolas work off each other whenever they have an conversation. Definitely one of my favorites, and I would personally love to thank John Rhys-Davies for that because if it were not for that entertaining performance, the character would not have been the same. Merry and Pippin are greatly significant in this film and have evolved as well. The both of them are separate from each other throughout most of the film, but their separate story arcs help evolve them into enjoyably bold and courageous characters. One character I have to note just because he is so enjoyably over the top is Denethor (John Noble). He is basically the Steward of Gondor and because his son died he is going kind of mad. But it is not even sympathetic mad, just over the top funny mad. I know John Noble may seem like he is giving a credible performance, or that maybe the writers felt that they have written this character strongly. But really it feels like a cartoon character. He shouts, screams, acts like a drama queen, and just overall just plain silly. Yet, I still enjoyed the hell out of him. One thing I noticed throughout this entire trilogy is something about the character of Arwen (Liv Tyler). She is basically the love interest of Aragorn, and that would be all fine and dandy, IF SHE CONTRIBUTED! Seriously, this character does nothing to contribute to the plot or the motivation that our heroes are driving for. All she does is whine and bawl over not being with Aragorn. There is even another woman named Eowyn (Miranda Otto) who meets Aragorn and starts to fall in love with him. And you know what SHE SEEMS LIKE THE BETTER GIRLFRIEND! She wants to prove herself in battle, and she DOES by fighting, she contributes, she is supportive, she's likeable, heck she even kills the Witch King, the leader of the Naz'gul, in battle! She is an awesome and likeable woman! But no Aragorn chooses whiney. And you know what the two get married and Arwen appears happy that she didn't have to go through all the commitment, struggles, blood, sweat, and tears that our great heroes had to give to save Middle-Earth from a dark overlord. So yes all the other characters are great and fantastic as ever, but Arwen I could care less about. She is completely unnecessary and she is total waste of time. BUT...fortunately she is not enough to destroy this awesome film.
There is still a lot more to enjoy that overshadows the terrible character of Arwen including the other great characters in this enormous cast. Such again the amazing action scenes and they could not have been better. There are about two big action scenes in the entire film and both have an enormous and epic feel and scope to them. Not only the choreography of the action is what makes them great, but surprisingly the emotional weight that is in them.
Actually a lot of emotional weight is put into a lot of aspects of the film. The story, the characters, the scope, the tone, and yes even the action scenes. The stakes that are high in this film grow on to you and the closer our main protagonists reach their goal, the more we root for them and pray that nothing terrible happens that will prevent them from accomplishing their goals. Unlike The Two Towers, where the story is sort of unbalanced, and even though it was still a pretty good installment and the good things in that one were really really good, this is the film where one can truly invested in if watched the entire trilogy from beginning to end. Fellowship works as a great introduction to this story and these characters, Towers works as the center and start of deep character development, and King works as the the point where everything comes full circle and everything that made the trilogy so good is evolved even more to almost the point of perfection. We all know how "successful" third films can be in a franchise because we all know everybody loved X-Men 3 and Spider-Man 3. But I feel that all #3 movies want to be Return of the King. They want it to be the epic finale and emotional height of the whole series of their films. This is because Return of the King is both an emotional story and emotional experience with an epic scope that works. The story grows on us and it easy to experience it through the eyes of again, Frodo, which works because he is such a great character. There are even scenes in which I personally get emotionally invested in whether it makes my heart race in thrilling scenes, or even scenes that succeed in getting me a little teary eyed. Not just Return of the King, but this whole trilogy in general felt like an emotional journey that grows and will probably stay on you. Looking past the conspiracies, the battles, the violence, and the setting of this fantasy world presented to us, Lord of the Rings in the end I feel brings a message that adventure is always out there. Our world is big and there are countless places to see, things to do, and fascinating people to meet. Everyday is an adventure, and that adventure leads us to a goal by the end of the day whether we have struggles or triumphs as our obstacles. And the trilogy helped bringing that message by presenting these characters and a story that feels so real that they almost become family to you. Lord of the Rings is great and will stay great, and Return of the King is more than worthy evidence to prove that!
GRADE: E
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