The Inevitable Return of the King Review

Well. I thought it was great -- as good as The Fellowship of the Ring and better than The Two Towers, where the military posturing of Helm's Deep and the insipid Ent attack on Isengard (in the books a far more memorable sequence than the Helm's Deep siege) annoyed me equally.

Some of the design work was quite amazing, Minas Tirith (and its demolition) being a particular triumph. Mordor's destruction was fantastic, stampeding orcs and toppling towers and all. (If I'd been the kind of person to get uneasy when art imitates real-life horrors, that sequence with Sauron's tower falling would have impressed me far more strongly than the use of "The Two Towers" as a title.) Nearly all of Gollum's scenes were phenomenal, including the flashback to Smeagol's fall from innocence. And the sequence with the beacons was quite beautiful, showing off the New Zealand scenery while demonstrating quite effectively what the ancients would have used instead of an internet.

I think it's clear these films will become completely definitive until such time, generations hence, as either their acting or their effects become so out of date as to seem positively quaint. At that point they may get remade, but I sincerely doubt they'll find another adaptor as sensitive and skilled as Peter Jackson. That said -- and inevitably -- I had a number of bones to pick.

I didn't think enough was made of Shelob (and what was she doing in this film anyway?). The effect used for the Army of the Dead looked altogether too much like Casper the Friendly Ghost. And the oliphaunt attack on Minas Tirith was terribly reminiscent of the attack on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.

More seriously, the ending was rushed, and horribly so. The healing of the various participants in the Battle of Pelenor Fields was glossed over, poor old Eowyn seemed to be stood up by Aragorn in his hour of triumph instead of finding true love with Faramir -- and don't get me started on the Scouring of the Shire, or rather the complete lack of one. To have Frodo mention three times in the last five minutes that the Shire just doesn't feel like home any more is confusing literal fact with allegory. The Shire simply can't end up the same as it's always been, the entire structure of the story forbids it. Argh. Never mind.

I understand the need to make the third film watchable in its own right, not just the final volume in a trilogy -- but skipping over such a significant element as the resolution of the Eowyn/Aragorn plot didn't even achieve that. (Doubtless there'll be more made of this in the DVD release, but that doesn't make the experience I paid for at the cinema any more satisfying.) I do wonder if five films, one for each "Book" (rather than each volume) of the parent novel would have been a wiser choice... but, if it had to be three, surely we could have lost some of Helm's Deep and moved Shelob back to where she belongs, thus making more room for some time spent on resolution in the final film?

As it was, it felt as if there was need for a spin-off TV series just dealing with the aftermath of it all -- the healings, the Scouring, Eowyn and Faramir, Saruman's downfall, the departure of the Elves, the Grey Havens, the Gamgee Family and so on. Never mind. Peter Jackson has said he'd be willing to tackle The Hobbit as a prequel, and that would, at least, produce a film of sensible length.

What I'd really like to see him try his hand at now, though, is The Silmarillion. Then we'll see what counts as "unfilmable"...