Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom
Director: Peter Jackson
Rated: M15+
THE Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is the third and final episode of Peter Jackson’s magisterial and highly profitable trilogy.
If you have seen the first and second instalments, I suspect there is little I could write that would influence your decision whether to see this film one way or the other.
As such, I will move straight to the point – The Return of the King is wonderful; a cinematic experience worthy of its over-the-top hype.
As real as your neighbours, the hobbits, elves, wizards and men – oh, and of course, those foul and crusty, orcs – gloriously battle their way to the end of J.R.R. Tolkien’s tale of good versus evil.
The performances of the film’s stars range from competent (Sir Ian McKellen and Liv Tyler) to outstanding (Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood). And yet, the acting is almost beside the point.
The real star of the film is the technology Peter Jackson expertly employs to bring the magic of Middle Earth to reality. Jackson provides us a breath-taking sprint of more than three hours through another world entirely.
It hardly matters if we almost all know how the film will end.
Even if you haven’t read Tolkien’s original texts, it is hardly difficult to predict – because we are thrilled to run with Aragon into battle, to clamber up Mt Doom with Frodo and Samwise Gamgee and to believe, in spite of current events to the contrary, that ours is the time of man.
