Decline of Substance

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2004)

This is your only spoiler warning...
What made the first two interesting was how they imitated a minimum of sources. Here, all sorts of minor elements are borrowed from...guess what? The 'Star Wars' trilogy. The elephant charge is from 'Empire'. Troll design comes from the Rancor. The concept of "distorted fathers" is obvious. The romance is from the original 'Star Wars'. Heck, they even throw in the funeral pyre from 'Jedi'!
Outside of Lucas' concoction, there are other lesser elements that are liberally stolen from. The siege is shot like 'Starship Troopers' as is Nazgul's death. Eowyn kills the Ringwraith like 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. The catapult POV is from 'Army of Darkness'. The breed of pleasant music and slow-motion threat? 'Face/Off'
Even without looking into other films in the world, there is so much internal referencing that this movie isn't anything new. More elephants, bigger armies, bigger fortresses, another giant monster, it's that simple. The designs here are the weakest of the trilogy, even the makeup and effects aren't impressive anymore. Sound design has degraded to B-movie levels.
The characterizations are less advanced this time. Gimli and Legolas are once again comic-relief. They haven't had anything to do since 'Fellowship'. Similarly, Arwen is given more though she wasn't needed in 'Towers' while Blanchett, the best actor in the bunch, is pointlessly used here.
Even worse is the level of gloss thrown on everything, something we've been seeing since 'Pearl Harbor'. The gloss will date this series in the same way that we see 'Taxi Driver' as amateurish today. While violence in 'Fellowship' was raw, here it is blurred out either by shaky camera or choppy editing. Cheap.
Shore uses more cues from his 'Towers' score and less from his better 'Fellowship' soundtrack. Jackson must still be caught up in the juvenile idea that music tells you how to feel. Shore is smarter than him having worked with smarter directors.
Final Analysis = = Midrange Material