Fantastic - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Reviews

I spent most of the movie thinking, "I can't believe I'm seeing this unfold." The effects were flawless - at no time did I notice special effects- simply orcs, trolls, and Gollum - wow. Of all of the visuals, the one I had least confidence in WETA's ability to make believable was the army of the dead. Not that I doubt WETA, mind you, they have earned a certain amount of faith from the fans, rather I did not see how the army of the dead could be visualized in a believable manner at all; again WETA and Peter Jackson, to my delight, gave form to my imagination and created a visual that was believable and stunning at the same time. The characters grow beautifully, Aragorn transforms from the Ranger from the North into King Ellesar before our eyes. All of the Hobbits are wonderfully portrayed. Billy Boyd's Pippin truly develops in this movie. Ian McKellan IS Gandalf, no one else could ever play this role now that Sir Ian has transformed the character from an idea in a book to a living, breathing being. My only complaint about the film is that at 3 and a half hours, it seemed rushed. There was no peril on Sam and Frodo's journey across Mordor, they seemed to simply transport themselves from Cirith Ungal to the crack of Mt. Doom. Unlike the previous two films, I felt that I could tell where scenes had been edited out. I firmly believe that the Extended Edition will raise the story grade from an A- to an A+. Thank you Peter Jackson, the goal of any artist is to create something larger than himself, and achieve imortality through your craft, you have done that... and given us all the wonderful gift of your imagination. Taken as a whole, this trilogy is clearly the greatest trilogy ever filmed.