A few problems, but near perfection

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2003)

As someone who has read the books and spoken with people who saw the movie before I did, I can still assure you that the movie was extremely suspenseful and emotional all the same. Very engaging.
My main problems were that there was a perfectly fine opening where they could have shown at least a few seconds of Saruman pacing around, or have had Grima thrown the palantir out of the tower in anger, just to explain why the heck the ball just happened to be sitting in the water, rather than upstairs in the tower where we last saw it.
The movie actually explained the ghost characters to me where I had been very confused about them in the book. Simple and straightforward.
This movie was more or less like the book, but was not all that "pure"--the book had a much longer, detailed resolution. The resolution phase of this movie worked well; it was quite a tearjerker. Which brings me to the problem of having heard some people comment on the sexuality of some of the characters. Those made no sense to me; the characters had obviously become much closer friends after the adventure, and if anything, their interaction was very toned down in comparison with the book. There was nothing "gay" about it. Obviously, this movie does not take place in early 21st century America, nor is our culture also that of Middle Earth. Don't forget that when watching.
Good job changing the book into a movie; beautiful visuals that did not detract from the actors or their performances. 9.5 out of 10... that'll round up to a 10 here.