Peter Jackson’s renditions of The Lord of the Rings films have had plenty of time to be scrutinized not just by fans new and old, but by the heirs of the Tolkien estate itself. Much of the scrutiny eventually created a cautious reluctance when it came to the franchising of further works such as The Hobbit and the bits and pieces blended into Prime’s The Rings of Power. Although it is completely acceptable to want to respect the late J.R.R. Tolkien’s works to maintain their original integrity, the estate’s aversion to allowing any adaptation past the main books has made it difficult to creatively do his extended works justice without intense amounts of creative license.

Despite this, Tolkien’s grandson, and novelist in his own right, Simon Tolkien, was interviewed by the BBC and asked what he thought of Peter Jackson’s film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings books. Despite the expectation that his response would be all-or-nothing, it seems that Simon Tolkien had some specific notes regarding the narrative flow of the three films, and even has one that is his least favorite. Although fans of the film trilogy enjoy the overall execution in-entirety, it’s exciting to see Simon Tolkien weigh in with very valid points that are at large quite agreeable among the greater fandom as well.

Simon Tolkien Overall Enjoyed The Film Trilogy

The Return of the King won 11 Academy Awards, making it uniquely one of three films that can boast this domination of accolades.
Principle photography for the entire trilogy lasted 438 days, not including pick-up shoots that happened when needed between 2001 and 2003.

In his interview with the BBC, Simon Tolkien makes it clear that he is very much Tolkien’s grandson, not just by blood, but by taste as well. When he was given the chance to see the premiere screening of The Return of the King he compared it to his enjoyment of the first film, The Fellowship of the Ring. Simon Tolkien quite enjoyed the first of Peter Jackson’s trilogy because it took time to develop its characters and the overall interactions with one another. This slower burn in Fellowship of the Ring is a far shot from The Return of the King, which changes locale frequently.

For a fellow author like Simon Tolkien, seeing his grandfather’s work propelled onto the big screen made him wonder how his father would have viewed the overall adaptation. Simon thought that the overall spectacle of the film and effects were staggering and wonderful, but that perhaps Tolkien himself may have had an issue with the transition of his works onto film, as well as how franchising also plays into it. Simon explains, “I think anyone who writes a book like this, which is really your whole life, couldn’t really cope with the film treatment of it, but that doesn’t mean he would have felt that a film in itself was wrong.”

Simon Tolkien Has Issues With The Return of the King

Simon Tolkien took a while to pursue writing due to the shadow of expectation his name carried but started up strong when he was 40.
Simon Tolkien’s first book was Final Witness, published in 2002.

The Return of the King, although the most award-decorated film of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, is one that often receives the most criticism for its execution. The major sweep of the Academy Awards is largely due to the Academy holding out on Peter Jackson’s trilogy until the trilogy was completed. Simon Tolkien did enjoy the incredible effects of The Return of the King but had some very specific criticisms regarding how the story was told, which seem to echo much of how Tolkien wrote the books.

Simon explains “I actually thought it was the weaker of the three… The problem is really that there are so many things going on in so many places that, unlike The Fellowship of the Ring, where everyone was together on the journey, you get very confused as to who is doing what.” J.R.R. Tolkien’s overall style in The Lord of the Rings trilogy precisely reflects the next part of Simon Tolkien’s reply, in which he offers a solution he may have done to fix this, “I think there are wonderful things in it, but I would have liked to have cut much more of the battle scene and special effects in this one and had more development of the characters.”

The Overall LOTR Fandom Is Largely In Agreement

Despite The Return of the King having a current IMDb score of 9.0, higher than the other two, critiques at the time of release reflect a different response when comparing the three.
The Tolkien estate has prevented The Silmarillion from being made into film or television, limiting Prime’s The Rings of Power with extreme amounts of creative license.

When The Return of the King hit theatres for the massive finale in December 2003, audiences echoed similar sentiments about the film; praising it for its spectacle and overall wrap-up of the story, but commenting that it needed more space for character development instead of battles. Many media outlets and sketch comedy shows parodied and roasted The Return of the King for its “Endless endings” and fans discussed their joy at the battles, but also their visual fatigue, as they desired more character moments. Although Hollywood can never get enough of a good epic battle on film, the need to inform the dire stakes and the audience’s investment in the character’s fighting is just as important as good stunts, set pieces, and special effects that are required for immersion.

To know that Simon Tolkien shares similar views to most of the fandom when it comes to The Return of the King is quite validating for the tone, pacing, and taste J.R.R. Tolkien set in his books, and how well it translated to audiences who read the books. Peter Jackson should also be credited for this as well since most of the new fandom either just saw the films or started reading because of the film release felt Tolkien’s tone more in the first two films, and noticed the huge pace-change by The Return of the King. The film itself is still heartfelt and an epic end to the trilogy, but it is interesting to see how well Jackson’s consistency synced audiences to Tolkien’s world to the point that they’d later notice when it felt a bit too bloated to compare to the others.