Amazing

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2003)

In short: amazing.
Every bit as great as the first one, and probably better.
Sure, no Saruman, no "Scouring of the Shire", and a lot of important scenes have (much like in the first one) been moved to the Extended Edition, like Faramir's healing and he and Éowyn falling in love. Still a lot of "come on, kiss, already!" long looks between the hobbits. Mordor isn't as dark as it should be, and I think it looked darker in the other movies. Gimli is still used for comedy, although it's not as bad as in TTT. Andúril should have been reforged in the first movie, and Aragorn should have had it since leaving Rivendell. And, as tao commented, Merry and Pippin should be quite taller now than the other two hobbits...
Ok, that's it. All the bad parts are there, IMO. The rest is... perfection.

Loved the intro, Sméagol's slow transformation into Gollum. "Corruption" is the right word here - and it's very, very well done.

Minas Tirith looks incredible.

Shelob is the "best" looking giant spider I've ever seen in a movie. The part before she first appears, when Frodo is running alone in her tunnels, is brilliantly scary.

The speeches from Théoden and Aragorn before the two battles are some of the best I've seen - short, inspiring, and accompanied by great music. I'd have followed those guys, if I was there.

The lighting of the beacons... Wow!

Some of Gimli's lines are great: "it still counts as one!" "may the best dwarf win!" :D

Denethor... twisted from the start (and we never see that he's been corrupted by his Palantír, that's for the EE, I guess), but what an actor!

Miranda Otto looked a lot better in this movie than she did in TTT. ;)

Pippin's song, interposed with Faramir's futile charge... wow, again!

Elrond: still makes me think of something like "hear that, Mr. Sauron? That is the sound of inevitability." :)

And the battle of Pelennor Fields... makes Helm's Deep look like a pillow fight, or something like that.

Now... still a year before the EE. Damn. :(