The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Extended Edition)
As part of a fathom event, I had the good fortune of seeing all three films in three days. The 4 hour 19 minute behemoth concluded my movie marathon late on a Monday night, but the time flew by like it was a 30 minute episode of television.
The Two Towers will always be my favorite movie of the trilogy, but this film does continue with well shot battle scenes, lots of emotional moments, and a series of closure scenes that leaves the audience crying.
The bodiless, but not powerless, Sauron has been in the shadows for many hours of film, with no explanation given in these films, but has been relying on his magic ring to return to him. The clear theme of addiction slaps you in the face with the force of a fiery red eye on top of a tower. While the now airing "Rings of Power" tv show is starting to explain the circumstances of how this ball got rolling, the audience of this film doesn't know that. All we know is an addictive substance is in the hands of those that don't understand, and are expected to destroy something that has such a strong hold on you.
In order for Frodo to destroy his addiction, he still needs his best friend Sam to be there to get him through the darkest of times. Gollum is there to remind him of the price of addiction, but Sam is there to remind him that hope never dies. It's so touching and emotional and relatable. The remaining characters in the film do all they can to distract the enemy from knowing what's going on under Sauron's nose. This leads to spectacular battle scenes that make sure all of our original, living, Fellowship get their time to shine. Pippin and Merry especially are baptized in fire being among kingdoms and nobles and warriors. It doesn't matter who you are, you matter and can change the world.
Going to war to defend the people you love is done in a romantic fashion when the enemy are beasts and creatures with the emotional range of a rock. The complexities of societal breakdown are limited to misunderstandings and madness. When the good looking races of human, dwarf, elf are all getting along, then the ugly looking race can be eliminated.
It's a great conclusion to an epic series of movies that would have done Tolkien proud. The fact that the non romantic love story between two men shines through is so beautiful. The world needs more of that.
