By Margaret A. McGurk
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Frodo (Elijah Wood), Gollum (Andy Serkis), and Sam (Sean Astin) plot to enter Mt. Doom. (AP Photo)

THE RETURN OF THE KING

Rating (PG-13; intense epic battle sequences, frightening images) Cast: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Miranda Otto, Liv Tyler. Director: Directed and co-written by Peter Jackson. Time: 215 minutes. Click here for showtimes. Click here to view the trailer.

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POSTER PAGES

The Enquirer published three commemorative poster pages for Lord of the Rings. Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers Return of the King

It seemed too much to expect.

The first two installments of The Lord of the Rings dazzled so brightly, how could the final chapter top its predecessors?

And yet it happened: The Return of the King is everything fans had hoped and more.

Director Peter Jackson, after six years of labor, has crowned the trilogy with a work of majesty and delight.

The story is familiar to the millions who have read J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth fantasies: Hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), guided by the treacherous Gollum (Andy Serkis), continue their arduous journey to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring that embodies the evil power of Sauron.

Meanwhile, the human Ranger Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) claims the crown of Gondor and, with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), leads an alliance of men, elves, dwarves and others in a last stand against Sauron's army of custom-made monsters.

There are several other subplots, including a love triangle, that emerge with remarkable clarity considering the complexity of the tale. Jackson and company do not spend much time recapping what happened in the earlier films, yet the story stands solidly on its own.

That is true in part because in this final film Tolkien's overriding themes - self-sacrifice, loyalty, the war

between good and evil - come into sharpest focus.

Those values made the books universal favorites, and they elevate the Ring films far above the hundreds of special-effects fantasies we have seen on screen over the past 30 years.

Tolkien endows his characters with genuine heroism; that is, he gives them the courage to do difficult, frightening, dangerous, noble things in spite of their fears, not because they are fearless. We love Frodo and Sam because time after time when one or the other is tempted to give up and go home, they press on through every peril.

And, man oh man, what whopping perils Jackson has given them. Most terrifying is the giant spider Shelob, rendered with such lifelike detail that arachnophobes the world over may dive under their seats when she appears.

Down on the battlefield, Aragorn and Gandalf face grotesque monsters as bizarre and vivid as anything Ray Harryhausen ever imagined (Jackson has often credited the influence of the F/X pioneer).

The battle scenes are mighty conflagrations, marvelously choreographed to balance live action with computer-generated figures and backgrounds. Likewise, Grant Major's exquisite production design (and the fabulous New Zealand setting) makes the film look fantastic, Howard Shore's original score adds precisely the right tone of lush drama, and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie captures wondrous nuances of light and shadow.

Yet, as good as the technical aspects of the movie are, it is the personal stories that make Return of the King so intensely satisfying.

We don't need to be told that the fearsome choice made by the elf Arwen (Liv Tyler) out of love for Aragorn costs her father Elrond (Hugo Weaving) almost as much as it does her. We can see it in their faces.

In the same way, we see the pain that unrequited love brings to the ferocious Eowyn (Miranda Otto). Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), the playful young hobbits who followed Frodo and Sam, undergo ordeals that force them to grow up before our eyes.

The centerpiece of the film, however, is the bond between Frodo and Sam, a friendship forged in suffering that is as poignant as any I've seen on film. Wood, despite relatively little dialogue, does a terrific job of showing the changes that Frodo undergoes, while Astin makes the big-hearted Sam utterly real.

At 31/2 hours long, the movie is expansive but never for one second boring, right through a finale that winds down in a symphonic series of mini-crescendoes.

In fact, the last 20 minutes are more of an epilogue than an ending, a cascade of farewell scenes fraught with emotions to make grown men cry.

My advice: Go ahead and weep, and call it tears of joy over a triumphant work of movie magic.

The story so far ...

In The Fellowship of the Ring, the first episode of The Lord of the Rings, the wizard Gandalf tells Frodo Baggins it is his destiny to destroy the One Ring that represents a desperate threat to all of Middle-earth. He sets out with fellow Hobbits Sam, Merry and Pippin, evading enemies such as the ghostly Ringwraiths with help from allies including Aragorn the Ranger, Legolas the Elf and Gimli the Dwarf.

In The Two Towers, Frodo and Sam are separated from their friends but trek onward, taking Gollum prisoner along the way and demanding he guide them to Mordor. Meanwhile, Gandalf, Aragorn and the others make new allies - including the ancient, sentient trees called Ents - and launch an assault on the stronghold of corrupt wizard Saruman and his army of monsters.

In The Return of the King Frodo and Sam struggle against fearsome threats to reach their goal, while Gandalf and Aragorn lead a last-ditch battle against the forces of Sauron.

E-mail mmcgurk@enquirer.com