The Return of The King is Overated

The Return of the King is overrated.

GASPS

Lower your pitchforks and your model Narsils, step back from your precipices while your cloaks alight in oil, and harken to me. 

For better or worse, and by that I mean the worse, this is America and everything is a zero sum game. We do this in books (I do this in books). We do this in films (shameless plug to follow me on Letterboxd). Analysis of quality reduced to a 100 point scale, to a top ten ranking, to be sorted top to bottom by awards won or box office return on Wikipedia. To what end? To sit atop the most hoarded gold? 

But enough of my evangelizing, I return now to my thesis: Peter Jackson’s Return of the King (the director’s edition of course) is overrated. 

I am on the well recited record that The Lord of the Rings in its entirety is to literature what the Mona Lisa is to painting. I stand by that. This is not a criticism of the film compared to the books, though we might touch on that in due course. 

To the contrary, I think it’s the greatest film series of all time, I’ve watched my director’s cut DVD so many times that it’s burned out (don’t know if that’s a thing, but it feels like it should be a thing), and I recreated the battle scenes out of Lego at least fifteen times. It’s my third favorite movie of all time. It’s one of the greatest movies ever made by about fifteen different metrics. 

Why do I consider it overrated then?

Because it’s often listed in first place when put it in second. Therefore, overrated.

But really does that matter? I fucking loved The Odyssey. Harper and others despised it. Both of us will get on with our day. Such is life in 2026. 

Some people have taste, some people don’t, and sometimes taste doesn’t even matter. Tastes should change, your favorites should change. After all, the number of movies I won’t see will always eclipse the number I do. 

Personally, I think The Two Towers is the better movie of the series. I think it has better action, I think the plot and timing across the board is tighter, I think the character focus is better, I think the deviations from the book are handled better, and even has a better soundtrack. Both are amazing movies that are extremely important to me, but I think the Return of the King is overrated when compared to The Two Towers. 

One is considered one of the greatest of all time, one is just part of a great series, and I think the discourse needs to be flipped, if you don’t then hey! Good on you. I still like you.