Outtamind, Outtasite

Holy shit. "Return of the King" is 10 pounds of awesome in a five pound bag. I'm not sure where to really begin as the movie is just so fucking huge and so fucking intense in the way it comes at you with breathtaking landscapes, big fucking trolls and orcses, thousands of orcses that you can't help but overlook the inherent silliness of the whole swords'n'sorcerers genre, the clunky dialogue and the lame deus ex machina ghost army and just sit back and grin like an idiot for the whole three plus hours. The way Peter Jackson moves the film seamlessly from moments of epic grandeur to up close and personal humanity is remarkable. Purists will no doubt sneer at the liberties Jackson and company have taken with Tolkein's story, but then the books were bloated messes anyway. The films have managed to bring out the books' core ideas and characters, giving us the essence of a mammoth story that not only touches on some Big Themes, but also kicks fucking ass. So good.