The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
New Line Cinema | Release Date: December 17, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
94
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
40
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The conclusion of Peter Jackson's masterwork is passionate and literate, detailed and expansive, and it's conceived with a risk-taking flair for old-fashioned movie magic at its most precious. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterDavid Hunter
An epic success and a history-making production that finishes with a masterfully entertaining final installment. Read full review
100
NewsweekDavid Ansen
The second installment was better than the first, and this one is best of all. It has spectacular action scenes and imaginary creatures, and it’s by far the most moving chapter. The performances have deepened. Read full review
100
TimeRichard Corliss
The second half of the film elevates all the story elements to Beethovenian crescendo. Here is an epic with literature's depth and opera's splendor -- and one that could be achieved only in movies. What could be more terrific? Read full review
100
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Represents that filmmaking rarity -- a third part of a trilogy that is decisively the best of the lot. With epic conflict, staggering battles, striking landscapes and effects, and resolved character arcs all leading to a dramatic conclusion to more than nine hours of masterful storytelling. Read full review
100
EmpireAlan Morrison
Those who have walked beside these heroes every step of the way on such a long journey deserve the emotional pay-off as well as the action peaks, and they will be genuinely touched as the final credits roll. Read full review
100
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Labeling this as a "movie" is almost an injustice. This is an experience of epic scope and grandeur, amazing emotional power, and relentless momentum. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Jackson is rare among the makers of epic movies in that he knows how to do the small stuff, too. The Return of the King has “heart”--how else could it pump out all that blood? Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The most emotionally satisfying because, in addition to having both more intimate drama and more spectacular battles, it resolves all of the issues raised before. Read full review
100
New York PostLou Lumenick
A majestic conclusion to a nine-plus-hours epic that stirs the heart, mind and soul as few films ever have. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Like all great fantasies and epics, this one leaves you with the sense that its wonders are real, its dreams are palpable. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia Puig
As good as each individual movie is, the third film vaults the work into the stratosphere of classic movies. Key characters are enhanced, new civilizations visited and battles fought more intensely, while feelings and motivations are plumbed more deeply and movingly. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
As completely real on the psychological level as its up-to-the-moment visual effects have on the physical. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
It's been a long time since a commercially oriented film with the scale of "King" ended with such an enduring and heartbreaking coda. Read full review
100
SlateDavid Edelstein
It might be the cinema's most astonishing holy war film. The Lord of the Rings took seven years and an army of gifted artists to execute, and the striving of its makers is in every splendid frame. It's more than a movie--it's a gift. Read full review
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Jackson had the vision, persistence, insight and patience for this mighty job, plus the smarts to shape stage veterans and overlooked film actors into a seamless cast. He's made himself as immortal as a movie director can be. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Feels like a miracle, a movie that exceeds even the most formidable expectations without straying from its singular path. All hail this King. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
It rises, all on its own, to the realm of masterwork. Read full review
100
PremiereGlenn Kenny
A phantasmagorical slab of epic entertainment that satisfies on every conceivable level. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
From the acting to the special effects to the landscapes to the cinematography, editing and music, to the details of decor, wardrobe and armaments, we never once feel that we are in anything but the hands of an absolute master of the medium. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
First and foremost, it soars because its grand design and numerous story problems were worked out half a century ago by a guy named Tolkien, and Jackson was smart enough to realize this. Read full review
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
This movie is not only a thrilling experience, it closes the book on a truly satisfying trilogy. Read full review
100
Dallas ObserverGregory Weinkauf
This film is a miracle, an extravaganza equal to its predecessors and in some ways more stunning. It is a profound testament to the extraordinary power of moving images and sound. Read full review
100
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
The deep satisfaction of The Return of the King is in surrendering ourselves to the finale, in letting Jackson's superb storytelling (with due credit to co-screenwriters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens) surround us like a blazing campfire tale -- which it does, gloriously. Read full review
100
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
Ties everything together with a dazzling synthesis of pagan animism, heroic quest mythology, orientalism, Pre-Raphaelite imagery, 1950s sci-fi creature features, and Hollywood war epics. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
The invisible wizard Peter Jackson makes use of every scene to show us the meaning of magnificence. Never has a filmmaker aimed higher, or achieved more.
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
Then, finally, there are the endings, all six of them...For us outsiders, it seems like too much of a good thing...But all those are minor rants: The big fact is that The Return of the King puts you there at Waterloo, or Thermopylae or the Bulge, any desperate place where men ran low on blood and iron and ammo, but not on courage. Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
All in all, it's a fitting conclusion to the series, and yet there are disappointments built in. For one, Jackson has opted not to film Tolkien's downbeat "Scouring Of The Shire" epilogue. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
I love Jackson's "Rings" saga despite his propensity for whimsical animation whenever he tries to strike a chord of dread or menace. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Yet what I felt when the lights came up at the end of this visionary, titanic, relentless experience was something different: a strange relief that it was, at last, over. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
There is little enough psychological depth anywhere in the films, actually, and they exist mostly as surface, gesture, archetype and spectacle. They do that magnificently well, but one feels at the end that nothing actual and human has been at stake. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
This is a film in which ideas resonate as well as action. Gandalf’s words to Pippin about death have a muscular poetry. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
In short, this Krakatoa is at once exhausting and riveting. It's a technological marvel, and for those not with the program, a bit of a bore. Read full review
80
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
Peter Jackson has not really made a movie of The Lord of the Rings; he has sprung clear of it to forge something new. He has drawn a deep breath, and taken the plunge. [5 January 2004, p. 89]
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It’s odd and unfortunate, however, that The Return of the King just barely misses the eye-misting emotional wallop of the series’ previous installment, The Two Towers, which had a lyrical subtlety underpinning the vast vistas of growing chaos (and Christopher Lee hardly hurt matters) and hobbits-in-peril. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Though an estimable success overall, The Return of the King has several scenes too many and too great a concentration on battles. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
The Return of the King is too long...The various story lines...come together in stilted, episodic ways. The narrative is less-than-seamless. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
The [final] battle is vast, and undoubtedly required thousands of hours of matching puppetry, robotics and computer code, but it is not without tedium. Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Despite its length, the film only starts feeling as long at the end -- or, more correctly, ends. Serious fans of the novels will be prepared for the serial codicils, but the uninitiated are likely to think the film is over several times before it actually is. Read full review
70
Film ThreatKevin Carr
If The Return of the King was 2 1/2 hours long, it would have rocked. It would have been better than The Two Towers, which is the best film in the series. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Add a lot of dull acting -- except Sir Ian McKellen and Andy Serkis -- and you have an uneven movie with yawns aplenty. Read full review
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