Marvel Studios' Return Of The King

HUGE SPOILERS FOR INFINITY WAR

It’s all been leading up to this moment. From the first Iron Man movie to now, the plan has always been Infinity War. Now it’s finally here, how does it hold up? Is it what we wanted? Or did it fall flat on its face off the big Soul Stone housing cliff of Vormir? Avengers: Infinity War feels like the Marvel equivalent of Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King. The scale of the films are similar as are some of the story beats, I also think they are rather close in terms of quality and enjoyment. The one thing that puts Return Of The King most likely above Infinity War in terms of general audiences is that you only have to watch two other films to experience the payoff of Return Of The King, whereas with Infinity War it’s more like eighteen. That’s the one downfall of the movie that I’m going to highlight before I gush about it for a whole review, it’s all payoff and if you haven’t seen the majority of the movies prior to this then that payoff is meaningless. Alright, onwards to the gushing! This movie is filled to the brim with characters that audiences have become attached to meeting up and interacting in fun little ways that enhance their development. I loved seeing how far Tony Stark has come, from being a very cynical man to just accepting that their are sorcerers in this universe as soon as he’s told so. Thor feels way more at home with the Guardians of the Galaxy than his old Avengers friends, which ends up painting him as sort of an outcast in previous films. There are so many previously set up relationships that come to a logical development or even conclusion in this film. Many people have suggested that this is Thanos’ movie even that he is the main character but I’d somewhat disagree. Sure he gets a lot of character development and backstory, the most of anyone else in the film probably, but the film still belongs to the heroes as it is constant payoff for all of their arcs. This all makes the ending more devastating. If you watch the movie as about Thanos then him winning in the end isn’t a twist it’s just how a movie works, the protagonist won so what? But as it is a movie about the heroes we love getting their heroic resolution, the fact that half of them turn to ash at the end is heart wrenching. Speaking of heart wrenching, there are so many great and surprisingly real performances in this film. Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland give some of their best performances in this film, they really give it their all and it’s amazing to watch them actually care. That’s the thing with huge corporate blockbusters like this is that so often no one making them cares but everyone in this film is having fun and giving it 100% all the time. Now to actually discuss the similarities between Return Of The King and Infinity War and why it even matters. First of all, I think it was clever of the film to split our many heroes up towards the beginning of the film, as Tolkien does in Return Of The King. As with Tolkien’s work, there are three separate groups:

Titan Team

Frodo and Sam

1) those who take the fight to the villain. In Return Of The King, this group takes the form of our main protagonists, Frodo and Sam. These characters go on an epic journey, almost reluctantly wandering very far from anything they see as familiar and eventually to the home of our main villain. In Infinity War these characters are the Guardians of the Galaxy minus Groot and Rocket, also accompanied by Iron Man, Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. This parallel works so well because these heroes are positioned in the MCU as the main protagonists of their respective areas. Star-Lord is the fact of the cosmic side of things, Strange represents magic, Spidey is the new face of the MCU in general and Iron Man has been the main protagonist of the MCU since 2008. Each character is so far from familiarity, in the earthbound heroes case it’s the simple fact of being in space and for the Guardians it’s more thematic, as they’re thrown out of their usual fun hijinks into a much darker and important story. Whereas Frodo and Sam journey to Mordor, this group takes the fight to Thanos’ homeworld of Titan.

Wakanda Team

The Warriors

2) the heroic warriors. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli take up this mantle in Return Of The King. They make it their quest to defend Middle Earth by any means necessary and are extremely self sacrificing in there defence of Frodo and Sam. This group in Infinity War is the large group of heroes tasked with defending the Vision in Wakanda. The whole Wakanda battle feels as though it’s ripped from the pages of Tolkien. Black Panther shouting “Wakanda Forever!” before charging into an impossible battle gave me the same thrill as Aragorn shouting “for Frodo!” before doing the same. The battle of Wakanda is extremely tense and there are several moments where it feels as though the heroes may not make it out alive. It was during this battle I realised how much this film felt how Return Of The King felt the first time I watched it. Down to the point that I felt just as scared for Bruce Banner’s life as he fought Cull Obsidian as I did when Aragorn battled the Troll during the battle of Mordor.

Hammer Team

Merry and Pippin

3) the group that is relegated to a subplot but that ultimately turn the tide for the rest of the characters. Gandalf, Merry and Pippin spend the majority of Return Of The King defending the Gondor capital of Minas Tirith, which doesn’t really effect the rest of the plot. However, their actions wind up leading them to participate in the battle of the Pelennor Fields and aiding in the defeat of the Witch King, turning the tide of the war significantly. This parallels the adventures of Thor, Rocket and Groot in Infinity War. These three are sent on a little side mission to create a Thanos-Killing weapon for Thor, which ends up turning the tide of the Wakandan battle. The reason these parallels are at all important, is that it shows that this film is the fantastic end of one long story as evidenced by the similarities it has with probably the best finale to a series of all time. I thoroughly enjoyed this film but I’d recommend you see the majority or preferably all of the previous MCU films to get the full experience of it, just as I would recommend watching Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers Before Return Of The King. This goose has big purple Thanos teeth.