The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King DVD Review (Viggo Mortensen) Empire Movies

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING DVD REVIEW

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(New Line Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

9/10

Liam

What can you say about "The Return of the King" or the whole "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, for that matter, that hasn't been said a million times before by a million different people? The movies are brilliant. They are art and entertainment at their best and they'll go down in history as one of the most ambitious and successful projects ever captured on film. And with the release of "The Return of the King" on DVD, all three are available to own and to treasure over and over again. Sure, it isn't the extended edition release, for which we're going to have to wait several grueling months, but it's something. And something is better than nothing.

The Return of the King is just that. The story about Aragorn claiming his right to the throne. It's the conclusion of every storyline from the trilogy. Frodo and Sam. The Ring. The Fellowship. You get the point. In short, it's everything we've been waiting for since the release of "The Fellowship of the Ring" back in 2001. Three years invested and the payoff is well worth the wait. The characters have grown and we've grown with them, and in a way, it's bittersweet - to put an end to that part of our lives - just as the end of the movie is bittersweet - that everyone's lives are forever changed for having been part of the quest to destroy the One Ring. If anything, that's the only problem with this movie - that there is never a moment where you want to stand up and cheer. There has been too much lost along the way - innocence being the victim. But what a ride it has been.

For the DVD release of "The Return of the King" we get a handful of special features. There's "The Quest Fulfilled: A Director's Vision" where we learn about the production of the film and where Peter Jackson and crew talk about the final installment of the trilogy and go over the themes of loss and the bittersweet nature of not only the story, but the filmmaking process. How they spent the last few years together making these movies, and now they have to put it behind them and move on. "A Filmmaker's Journey: Making The Return of the King" goes over the same info. In fact, a lot of the material used in the first featurette shows up in this one. It's strange why there are the two featurettes when they both glaze over the same subjects. They could have just merged them and made one longer feature. That said, however, these feature are great and give a nice insight into the making of the movies, and what an endeavor it was. While there isn't a lot of "making of" material in terms of special effects, it's a nice addition to the disc and to the series.

The next feature is a National Geographic Special. Hosted by John Rhys-Davies, the special goes over the story of "The Lord of the Rings" and how it relates to historical fact. For example, Aragorn is compared to William Wallace ("Braveheart") for his leadership qualities and to Theodore Roosevelt for having gone through a self-imposed exile. Or Gandalf is compared to the man who counseled Queen Elizabeth I, for having given advice without any thought of seeking power for himself. Wormtongue is compared to Rasputin for the counsel he provided to Theoden. I could go on. What's odd is that it is a special about "The Return of the King" but very little time is spent discussing the individual film. More time is spent of the trilogy as a whole and comparing events and characters (such as Wormtongue and the Battle at Helms Deep, both of which only appeared in "The Two Towers") to real life events and historical figures.

For featurettes, we get a series that were created for the film's official site, lordoftherings.net. Sure, you can just download these and check them out individually on your computer, but here you get the DVD quality - and being able to take them in on the big(ger) screen. A favourite? I'd have to say "Samwise the Brave". I remember downloading it when it was originally released and for some reason it affected me. Maybe it was Christopher Lee - the way he talked about Samwise, the average man and how he's the real heart of the movie. And watching again on DVD - it had the same effect. Sure, there are features on Aragorn and Eowyn, and a great look at Minas Tirith, but the Samwise feature - great stuff.

The special features are rounded out by some previews and TV spots. We get 2 trailers for ROTK (presented in in their full 5.1 glory to boot!), a number of TV spots and finally a Lord of the Rings Supertrailer which combines the best of all three films. Also, if gaming are your thing, there's a look at the series of Lord of the Rings video games from Electronic Arts. If I had time to play video games, these would be high on my list of must-haves.

Again, what can I say that hasn't been said. Great movie. Great DVD. And sure, it's tough to put it all behind us now but at least we have the extended edition to look forward to. However, as nice as it is to have something to look forward to, at the same time I wish I didn't have wait.

Features
In-Depth Programs
The Quest Fulfilled: A Director's Vision
A Filmmaker's Journey: Making The Return of the King
National Geographic Special
Featurettes (Created for lordoftherings.net)
Aragorn's Destiny
Mina Tirith: Capital of Gondor
The Battle of Pelennor Fields
Samwise the Brave
Eowyn: White Lady of Rohan
Digital Horse Doubles
Original Theatrical Trailers
TV Spots
LOTR Trilogy Supertrailer
Video Games Preview

Video
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Audio
English Dolby Digital EX 5.1 Surround Sound
English Stereo Sound

Subtitles
English
Spanish
Closed-Captioned

Release Date
May 25, 2004

Rating
PG-13

Length
200 mins.

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