Excellent elephants

Rating: Null/10 (11 December 2003)

Just got back from seeing it and I'm still a bit light-headed. The action scenes are brilliant in the old-fashioned sense, particularly the Rohan charge. There's still too much swashbuckling in the fighting, too much lame-o comedy from the dwarf (wasn't he a bit more dignified in the book?) and schmaltz in place of Tolkien's understated poignancy. But I'm nit-picking. It's fantastic, the three hours fly by and Shelob is superb. She ought to have her own series.