"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," with 11 Oscar nods, is this year's movie to beat. Directed by Peter Jackson and starring Elijah Wood as Frodo Baggins, Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee, Hugo Weaving as Elrond, the sultry Liv Tyler as Arwen, rough-cut Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor, Ian McKellen as the White Wizard formerly known as Gandalf and the dreamy Orlando Bloom as Legolas the Elf, this grand finale to J.R.R. Tolkien's epic trilogy weighs in at a hefty 200-plus minutes, the longest cinematic release in recent memory.
Gorgeous, sweeping cinematography, fantastic makeup and costumes, breathtaking special effects and a moving score ensure that "Return of the King" will walk away with at least a handful of statuettes this weekend.
Critics of the movie point out its lack of a complete narrative, classifying "Return of the King" as the last third of one of the most ambitious movies ever made. But New Line Cinema, who produced and released "Return of the King," is hoping Academy members will consider the "Lord of the Rings" series as a whole when voting for such Awards as Best Director and Best Picture.
Andy Serkis, who played the computer-animated Gollum, is notably missing from the supporting actor nominations. Serkis provided Gollum's voice and gave life to the digitally-overlaid bundle of id and more id through the modern marvel of motion-capture.With photo-realistic skin textures, dynamic body hair and loin cloth and amazing facial articulation, Gollum has set the standard for the next generation of computer-animated characters.
"Return of the King" faces unusually fierce competition for the Adapted Screenplay Academy Award, squaring off against such films as "American Splendor," "Mystic River" and "Seabiscuit." In contrast, the Visual Effects Oscar should be a walk in the park considering "Return of the King's" fantastic, enormous rendered battle scenes were both aesthetically and technically precedent-setting.
But no matter how Peter Jackson and his magnum opus make out on Sunday night, "Return of the King" has already been voted Best Picture by the pocketbooks of the world -- it broke the $1 billion mark worldwide last weekend.
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