Wow, it really doesn't take long... Return of the King has been out for just under a week and it's already been named Entertainment Weekly's # 1 movie of 2003. Here's the review that was given, since I was too lazy to make my own.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Well, I'm back.'' That's Sam the hobbit speaking, succinctly marking his place at the end of ''The Return of the King.'' But it's also me speaking -- and millions like me -- back for one last time in thrall to the movie magic that mortals have conjured in ''The Lord of the Rings.'' Out of J.R.R. Tolkien's literary epic, New Zealand director Peter Jackson has fashioned a cinematic masterwork, a trilogy that has stood as a classic since our first glimpse of the bucolic Shire in ''The Fellowship of the Ring,'' back in 2001. And in his concluding chapter, Jackson has established a new template of grandeur for the Big Finish: a 200-minute saga that feels huge but scaled for humans, massive but urgent. ''The Return of the King'' is a visual spectacle, a state-of-the-art display of technical flair, and a showpiece of plot density and narrative rhythms. But even as the thousandth monstrous orc falls, what moves us more is our identification with the stakes these mythical characters are fighting for, men and elves and hobbits alike -- notions of enslavement and freedom made powerfully relevant by the grace of the filmmaker's storytelling. The digitally created monsters are awesome; the organically created feeling of pertinence to our own embattled world is even more profound. It's why we feel we too have alighted from a transforming journey at the trilogy's end. And why we'll keep coming back to reexperience the voyage.
Review taken from Entertainment Weekly[dot]com.