Gollum disappoints! Pippin doesn't.

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2004)

Gollum & Pippin are my favourite characters in the books. While Gollum was superb in Towers, he was surprisingly weak here. (Except for the opening & the "wouldn't harm a fly" scene.) The remainder were disappointing. The Gollum/Smeagol exchange was a pale reflection of the one in Towers. ('scuse pun) Even the sequence I most love, "Sneaking!" seemed to lack something. (See animation for better rendering.) All respect to Andy. That voice is incredible. I just felt they could have been done better, given more time.

Pippin however was marvellous. He finally got the screen time he deserves, rather than just being comic relief. In fact he gets far more to do here than in the text, thankfully. A true hero.
I'm an arachnophobe so I confess to having my eyes shut during certain scenes. I'm not a battle fan so I only paid attention to scenes involving hobbits. The other characters don't hold my interest. (This isn't the fault of the actors. They're just like the book. I simply prefer the hobbits & ents.)
Weighing up the evidence I award ROTK ......... 6/10