Ostentatious!. Review on Lord of the Rings: Return of the King Movie

Ostentatious

That perhaps is one single word which rightly explains ‘The Lord of the Rings – Return Of The King’ (hence referred as ROTK). One of the most anticipated movie trilogies of our times, the Lord of the Rings finally ends its journey this year, in what must be termed as one of the greatest cinematic achievement on the big screen. After the three hour twenty one minute spectacle (201 minutes), when you finally begin to move from the theater you think if there could another grandiose series like this. And yet with all is theatrical enigma of being a cinematic classic on screen, The ROTK is the one word I looked for – Ostentatious.

Ostentatious – Pretentious, Showy, Affected, Brazen, Flamboyant, Grandiose.

Lord of the Rings has always been a flamboyant take off from the original work by J. R. R. Tolkein. Right from the shire to the two towers, the ugly orcs, the castle of Gondor, the elves and their lands; each one of it has been realized to be complete cinematic aesthetics.

For a brief caper – the fellowship of the ring is formed when the Evil ring of Sauron (which can cause destruction of middle earth) has been found by Froddo’s grandpa (Froddo and his friends are Hobbits); Gandalf the wizard bestows the task of returning the evil ring back to the doom mountain where it must be destroyed, and to help him out form the fellowship of 9 people, led by Froddo, his friend Sam, his two friends Merry and Pippin, Gandalf, Aragon (The true heir of Gondor), Boromir (Aragon and Boromir are humans), Elf Legolas, and the Dwarf Gimli. Sauron who is constantly getting stronger in his evil powers does his best to take charge of the fellowship, and manages to break it apart, while 2 people are killed and Gandalf is assumed dead.

In the two towers, Sam and Froddo continue their journey albeit without the fellowship to Mordor the place of Doom Mountain and the one ruled by Sauron. Meanwhile, Gandalf resurfaces with rest of the fellowship to fight a monstrous battle at Helm’s deep in their way towards Gondor. At the same time, Merry and Pippin together with trees fight the evil wizard Saruman and his towers. Meanwhile, Arwen the daughter of Legolas has developed more than interest in Aragon, the warrior. However the two towers introduces to Froddo and Sam and to us as well, Gollum, an ancestral hobbit who was the previous owner of the Ring and still desires it. The cunningly duplicitous Gollum whims and plans to get the Ring back but has the patience to lead Froddo and his friend Sam to Mordor too.

ROTK begins with the battle of Saruman and Helm’s deep won of course by the good people. Gollum, still plotting and planning is taking the hobbits across, while at Gondor (ruled by a steward), is held by Gandalf to rally the forces for the battle against the army of Sauron, while the rest of the fellowship regroups the army of Rohan (it will take another review to explain this one). While the fellowship fights the war against the orcs, Aragon convinces the undead (soul keeper, you cannot miss this part!), to lead the war. The fellowship then restores the king (Aragon) back to throne and lead a deviation for Froddo and Sam to demolish the ring; how they do it – watch the movie!

[Note – I haven’t even dwelled into the numerous subplots AT ALL!]

ROTK is grandiose personified. It would simply be an understatement of the year if I did say that the battle scenes look simply spell binding and incredibly done. You will witness without any doubts, one of the best battle scenes in cinema; you will see one of the most articulately done sets in Gondor; and you cannot miss the breath taking beauty of New Zealand in the background all along, nor can you miss the chillingly done Mordor. But most of all you cannot miss Gollum, wily hobbit who is part animation part human – he is simply incredibly done in this movie.

And yet, ROTK is showy. While the battle scenes take up more than 1/3rd of the movie, they don’t form more than 4 chapters in the book. While the battle is at their cinematic best, somehow the undead souls look straight out of the Mummy. Lots of places swords don’t have blood in spite of the kill, ugly looking orcs who could have been better looking, giants birds, giants, and elephants – there is an aura of something really pompous about the whole series, especially this last one. Maybe Jackson filmed it that way – ROTK ends up being a pompous end to the trilogy.

ROTK is affected too by its own complications and sub plots. There are subplots a many and Jackson very neatly manages to put all of them together and that is appreciable (In fact a big pat to Jackson for his imagination in putting together such a cinematic experience). While Froddo and Sam are nearly absent from half the movie, there is lack of depth in characters other than Sam and Gollum. Of course, having shooting such a movie in this scale has its toll, but I wouldn’t complain much about it. ROTK is more than affected by the battle itself – the ultra long battle sequences just makes the movie even more longer because Jackson couldn’t compromise on others at the expense of the war.

ROTK is let down by some brazen acting. None of the lead characters really show any depth in their acting. Except for Gollum and Sam, none of the characters touch you. Arwen the elf (Liv Tyler who looks absolutely stunning), manages to impress you but the rest of star cast simply pales in comparison, including Gandalf. Aragon fails to impress in the final sequences where he forms the most important part of the movie – nor does the dwarf impress who simply goes around joking. The other cast of sub plots and sub sub plots simply meander away because either they have too little time on screen or they are just a part of the huge enterprise.

Lastly, and sadly, ROTK is a pretentious attempt at the real book. While the battle of Mordor hardly lasts 4 chapters, it’s the integral part of this movie. However the biggest disappointment comes from Saruman (the evil wizard whom the trees defeat in second part), never comes back. It is Saruman who ends the trilogy and its final battle between Gandalf the good and Saruman the evil where Gandalf finds his own nemesis. By twisting this part of the story, Jackson has infuriated many a fans around the world. ROTK then spends a luxurious amount of time winding all the loose ends and ends on a brilliant note.

Lastly is this movie worth going? Yes it definitely is one of the most epic movies you will see in a long long time. Excuse its length, and you are ready to witness what must be called an absolutely brilliant end to the trilogy in cinematic experience.