Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen
Directed by: Peter Jackson

As expected the Return of the King was excellent. This conclusion to the epic triology is pretty much what one would have expected. This is not to say that there aren't a few surprises here and there. As someone who has read the book I still found myself on the edge of my seat during scenes where I thought I knew the outcome. Of course three hours and twenty minutes in the movie theatre required me to shift my buttocks to the edge of the seat so that blood circulation could be accomadated. So maybe that's why I was on the edge of my seat.

Regardless, brilliant direction by Jackson once again. It's still impressive that he can coordinate all the elements of computer generated images, props, sets, actors and sometimes animals and create such beautiful scenes.

But I don't like this movie as much as the other two. I found that in many scenes the pace was not as tight as in the first one. One scene in particular, Theoden is giving medieval sword clanking props to his mounted soldiers. It took him a rather long time to go down the entire line of horsemen that each could get their props. The movie was long enough that you really wish he would get to the point. A simple line like, "Go Joe!" or "Autobots, roll out!" or "Turtles fight with honor!" and then get to the action. And there were a few scenes where I felt that way , either because whatever drama it was they were involved in was boring or because we had seen it done in the Two Towers in much the same way.

And then there was a lot of staring. Tons of staring. Gay type staring. If ever there was any doubt that Frodo and Sam are homosexuals it is completely abolished in this movie. Sometimes you think, well, men can hug... And staring at each other for extended periods of time is perfectly normal between best buds like Sam and Frodo. And that kiss was only, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 seconds long... Yeah, they're definitely gay. (Poor Rosie!) But when they do get to the action do they ever deliver! It's what any fantasy fan would ever want from a movie. Winged things flying at you! Creatures with scales... and... fur... Elephants. Catapults launching flaming rubble and heads and stuff. Trust me it was cool to watch. Dramatically the acting is still incredible across the board. I mean, the movie had all of the good qualities of the second movie minus a few lags in the tension. I imagine this is the result of having to chop down the original cut of the movie from 4 and a half hours (Droopy? I'm not sure) to 3 hours and 20 minutes. A must see movie anyway you slice it!

MastaCSG
King