Oh it was good very very good.... no stupid fat hobbit it wasnt they ruined precious.... (lol)

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2003)

Right having queued up outside my local cinema in the freezing cold last night, jumping about like a hyperactive 3-year old I was not expecting to be disappointed, however I am torn between my instinct as a lover of films in general and a passionate lover of the LOTR books.
I thoroughly enjoyed the opening scene (Smeagol/Deagol) I've been looking forward to a scene like that since the first time I hear Andy Serkis' Gollum voice (and I salute him for it!) Although at times the dialogue was a little wooden (something I noticed throughout) overall it told the downfall of Smeagol well, especially for those who haven't read the books and didn't really 'get' Gollum. I felt that the finding of the Palantir was too insignificant, especially considering the enormous power the Palantir has and its significance to the story, it definitely ought to have been chucked out of a window (lol). Pippin's 'battle' with the Palantir was unconvincing and a little too over the top for my taste but it was still quite good.
Merry and Pippin finally taking on their more serious roles was excellent and something I'm very glad happened. However new comedy Gimli was dually noted and discarded as ill timed and unnecessary. I also felt Aragorn's transition from ranger to King cam too quickly too late, making him seem a bit wooden, but I cannot fault Viggo Mortensen as an actor as he has been stunning through all three movies.
Something that really annoyed me as a book fan through-out all three movies is that PJ tended to swap nice Tolkien bits (such as Frodo asking Legolas why he wasn't wearing the winter boots of the other characters in FotR) for bad comedy banter or insignificant Arwen moments, the Arwen bits a nice touch but again unnecessary. The scene of Arwen seeing her son was wonderful, but should have been followed up in some was by either adding the appendices ending of the fellowship (i.e. Legolas and Gimli sailing off and Aragorn dying) or even being taken out all together, hopefully on the EE DVD there will be more to this! *Crosses fingers*
After finally getting my long awaited good view of Gondor, I felt that visually it was visually missing something but from a film point of view it was a fabulous piece of design. Once again costume, makeup and set were faultless and I salute the dudes who do it! One touch I really did love was the chain of the Ring making deeper and deeper cuts into Frodo's neck.

Another problem I has as a book-fan was the lack of Faramir and Eowyn love story, though I can see that from a none book audiences point of view this could seem tacked on and also take the mood away from Aragorn and Arwen. Also a total lack of Houses of Healing, that was a scene missed where Aragorn could have really shown his power as King, but fingers crossed for the DVD (again!) lol. The final scenes of the coronation and also the returning to the shire seemed hacked together and choppy, something I hope will change on the (dare I say it again) DVD.
Finally my instinct as a book lover tells me to hate it, or at least dislike it but as a lover of films in general I ought to adore it and go to see it and embarrassing and financially draining number of times. I took my till around half way through the film to turn of to that fact it was adapted from my favourite book and enjoy it as a movie in its own right, but once I did I really loved it and was dying to applaud when Aragorn and Arwen kissed in Gondor (I'm such a sucker for mush!). I think I will simply saw I liked it more than Two Towers and about the same as I did Fellowship, and I might just be tempted to go see it again... 