The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Release Year: 2003
Synopsis: As armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men. Yet, the sole hope for triumph over evil lies with a brave hobbit, Frodo, who, accompanied by his loyal friend Sam and the hideous, wretched Gollum, ventures deep into the very dark heart of Mordor on his seemingly impossible quest to destroy the Ring of Power.
My notes
I know we joke about this film having 30 endings, but after 11 hours of story and following a dozen solid characters, each with their own arcs in a well-realized fantasy world, the endings are cathartic.
Looking back at the trilogy as a whole and less on this film in specific, I think The Lord of the Rings is a series that has actually benefited from the vast array of explainer videos and essays. They're not necessary, it's a perfectly enjoyable film series even if only given a surface viewing. But having knowledge of the backstory does add satisfying depth.
This stands in stark contrast to the modern connected universe storytelling where background usually only adds an "I understood that reference" moment that does more to gatekeep the property than it does to add additional detail.
One final note on this, it's a good thing that Return came out prior to Gamergate and the weaponization of 'woke,' or Éowyn killing the Witch King while dropping her 'I'm not man' line would have gotten the talking heads talking.