For all its titanic technical breakthroughs and iconic moments of spectacle, its thematic resonance and sweeping storytelling have helped maintain its legacy beyond similar blockbusters.

Full Review | Original Score: 10/10 | Dec 27, 2023

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King asks us to reckon with death and then heals that emotional wound by reminding us that death isn’t a tragedy but the final passage of life.

Full Review | Dec 18, 2023

Depictions of true friendship in movies are rare. Depictions of male friendship, even rarer. With The Lord of the Rings, audiences saw trust and affection develop between men brought together by a common purpose.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 3, 2023

It is a film of epic proportions, huge in scale and filled with moments of violence and emotion. But it is also an intimate and emotional experience, in which many viewers will end up shedding several tears. Full review in Spanish.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 4, 2023

The extendedversion of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" doesn't feel any longer than the film everybody saw at the multiplex. There's 50 extra minutes of never-before-seen footage added into the original theatrical release.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 28, 2023

Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings is one of the most astonishing achievements in the history of film. It is nothing short of magical.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2023

A glorious and satisfactory close to one of the best film trilogies of all time. Peter Jackson's third entry is his biggest in scope, and also his most emotional. For Frodo! [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 4, 2023

... a blood and thunder finale that takes the viewer into a conflict of (quite literally) Middle-Earth shattering dimensions. If anything, Peter Jackson and his collaborators try to do too much with the final book of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy trilogy.

Full Review | Jul 9, 2022

...one of the greatest good vs evil stories ever told...

Full Review | Oct 27, 2020

The massive scope of this climactic chapter is once again awe-inspiring, entailing exceptional use of computer graphics, prosthetics and makeup, costuming, and sets.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Oct 9, 2020

For 2004 [the special effects] look great.

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | Jun 18, 2019

Peter Jackson's place in cinematic history is cemented with The Return of the King and now Star Wars seems like a film made a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 17, 2019

The Return of the King is really the heart of this cinematic masterpiece.

Full Review | Feb 19, 2019

At a whopping, hilarious, 4.20 duration for the extended version, Return of the King is the Oscar-winning, magnum opus of the franchise.

Full Review | Jan 14, 2019

This atavistic Christians-vs-Moors narrative doesn't belong in the present day, and that's no doubt why so many people are addicted to it: it's so ideologically overstated that it can easily be brushed off as harmlessly quaint escapism.

Full Review | Feb 28, 2018

The sense of closure is exquisite, but I'm not sure I'm able to forgive Peter Jackson for the three years that he has taken to put it on the screen. The wait has been excruciating.

Full Review | Feb 27, 2018

[It[ almost needs no review. If you liked, or disliked, either of the first two films, this one offers more of the same, with the emphasis on the "more."

Full Review | Feb 27, 2018

Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn is the good king of the title, and while the actor may look fetching in a crown and cloak, he doesn't have half of the gravitas of Sean Bean's Boromir in the first film.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 14, 2017

Ultimately, the chief difference between this film and its two predecessors is the presence of resolution. The story ends, just like we all knew it would. And there's something inherently disappointing about that.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2017

This is the crowning glory -- a cinematic feat that satisfies at every level.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 8, 2014