There's an awful lot going on in the final part of director Peter Jackson's adaptation of the Tolkein trilogy.

As he himself has said, it's climactic from beginning to end, hardly surprising as journeys are completed and relationships resolved from previous episodes.

With no recap at the start, anyone but the most avid Rings buff might find themselves struggling to recall the story so far in the battle between good and evil.

In a way, this hardly matters.

The good guys are easy to spot as the baddies resemble your worst nightmares, and the additions to the enemy cast list make the already-seen and pretty disgusting Orcs look like Jude Law.

Once again, Jackson brilliantly switches the action back and forth between the intimacy of the personal dilemmas and the intensity of the massive battle sequences.

Frodo and Sam's friendship is tested by the evil influence of both the ring and Gollum. Frodo has a web chat with Shelob, the mother of all spider monsters. Hobbits Merry and Pippin grow up and go to war. Aragorn proves himself a right royal king.

And there are several battles that make those witnessed in parts one and two look like minor skirmishes.

Those are only the edited highlights of the film whose length - a mighty three hours 21 minutes - might provoke mutiny among bum-numbed, non-Rings fans.

Not that the picture seems that long. Jackson gives his film a real sense of epic scale with magnificent photography and special effects that seamlessly blend the real and the unreal.

The New Zealand-based film-maker sets a new benchmark for cinema computer-generated effects that Hollywood will be hard pushed to beat.

He ensures each of the characters we've come to know and love (or hate if they're bad) has their big moment, except for Christopher Lee's Sauron, who hasn't made the final cut of this installment.

We have to make do with his representative, The Mouth of Sauron, a dark-helmeted relative of Darth Vader.

The cast mostly win the fight not to be swamped by the special effects. The opening scene charts Smeagol/Gollum's fall from grace and helps this demented hobbit-like creature (computer generated based on Andy Serkis's performance) come close to stealing the acting honours.

Jackson has been ignored twice by Academy Award voters. If there's any justice, come February, he'll be collecting the best director award.

* The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (12A, contains intense battle violence and horror scenes) opens in cinemas next Wednesday.

Published: 12/12/2003