The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

The culmination of nearly ten years' work, The Return of the King presents the final confrontation between the forces of good and evil, fighting for control of the future of Middle Earth.

While the evil might of the Dark Lord Sauron swarms out to conquer all Middle Earth, we continue to follow hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam's (Sean Astin) struggles as they travel further into the land of Mordor to destroy the accursed Ring of Power.

Travelling with them, in an uneasy alliance, is the deceitful Gollum (Andy Serkis), who brings them to the very heart of Mount Doom. Going into unchartered and new lands, the hobbits' future is unclear. Will Gollum betray them? Will they survive?

Meanwhile, the Warrior Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), revealed to be the lost King of Gondor, travels to Minis Tirith with an army of undead soldiers and the remaining members of the fellowship to rescue the ancient city from Lord Sauron's grasp.

Characters introduced and relationships built up in 'The Two Towers' will come to serve a valuable purpose in part three, particularly the difficult relationship between Frodo and Gollum, which turns out to be crucial to the story, with Gollum playing a more vital role than anyone would have predicted during the last movie.

Promising to be the most spectacular of the three movies, Jackson has had to pull out all the stops for the climax, including the enhancement of the movie's principal villain, the Dark Lord Sauron. Jackson was recently quoted as saying, "The Sauron in the books is sketchy at best, which makes it hard to turn him into a screen villain. But imagine not really seeing Darth Vader for all three Star Wars films - you just can't do it."

It's fair to say that the Dark Lord will have an increased presence in Jackson's adaptation, rather than being restricted to his role so far, that of a disembodied eye. The question plaguing Jackson and his crew has been how best to represent the lord of Mordor. Jackson said, "You can't reduce him to being a big guy striding around in black armour, but he can't be limited to a flaming eye either."

Sauron's henchman, the Mouth of Sauron, will also make his debut in this movie, bedecked in a large helmet that conceals all of his face, except his nose and decomposing jaws. Likewise, we'll be introduced to Boromir's father, Denethor, the Steward of Gondor (John Noble). "Denethor resents never having been king and Boromir inherits that bitterness." says Noble. "It's what led Boromir to try to steal the Ring in the first film. It's my job to show the humanity of the man - he is literally driven mad by grief and fear."

As Jackson's interpretations have so far remained almost entirely faithful to the books, there's every reason to believe that this final movie in the trilogy will also stick to this successful formula. Those that have read the books will therefore know what to expect in terms of plot but will no doubt still be amazed by the sheer spectacle of its telling.

What we can take for granted is that the action set-pieces, which have multiplied in scope from part one to part two, will reach an all time high in the final leg of the tale. Jackson promises bigger and better battles that will make the fight for Helm's Deep look like a minor scuffle. "The battles will be the biggest you have ever seen," says Jackson "We have a piece of software that allows us to have 200,000 computer generated extras fight each other. You simply press a button, sit back and watch these enormous battles unfold before your eyes."

The final scene of the movie, which takes places across the landscape of the Grey Havens is tipped by Jackson to be his favorite of all three films, the high point of the story and what everything has been working towards. "To me, it's a culmination of the entire story," he says. "It represents what it is to give and what it is to lose. That scene is probably the most powerful part of the entire film."

John Gold
Film Critic, Kikizo Movies