great in many ways; a few flaws

Rating: 8/10 (23 December 2003)

(Warning: very mild spoilers)
Oh, comments? Maybe people will have some. Like probably thousands on IMDB.com... so I'll be very terse.
Visuals and soundtrack: marvelous. Action scenes: very impressive; no complaints. Pacing: a bit too much setup, and definitely too much denouement -- and too drawn out. Acting: very good. Sets: wow. Locations: wow. Dialogue: too melodramatic for me in many places, but not horribly so; some lines hard to hear clearly. Gandalf: cool as always, but he gave me "combat Yoda" flashbacks at times. Dragons: wicked. Giant elephantish creatures: very big. Mad king: quite mad indeed. Integration of CGI and live action: continued flawless with brief periods of brilliance and/or inspiration.
Themes: loyalty to a great cause, vividly realized here; power corrupts, also vivid; redemption, a tad overplayed here IMO, but still a trusty theme; the worth of quality friends, well done; heroic battle deeds, bleah, I thought they were too implausible -- but still fun to watch; girls and halflings can fight too, well, OK, I guess that's obligatory these days. Wouldn't want to be sexist or heightist, eh?
And finally,
Spider: arachnophobes, you will want to see a different movie, or rent this and skip the spider part. TRUST ME. :-)
8/10 (you guys voting 10 need to watch it again in a few months or years; it's great but not perfect)