Impressive looking

Rating: 7/10 (27 January 2003)

This is definitely a very entertaining film and the special effects are terrific but I don't think its as good a film as the first one. We've come to know the characters already so the film dives right in with the action while the first film took its time setting up the story. I do have one major gripe in this film and its the part of the film with the two hobbits Merry and Pippin and those tree creatures. The film comes to a screeching halt when the scenes shift to that part. The tree creatures talk slow, walk slow and all the scenes with them crawl along like a drunk snail. Another complaint I have is Ian McKellen as Gandolf is hardly in the film at all. And Cate Blanchett has only one scene! The most exciting part of the film is the battle at Helm's Deep of course. These scenes are not only exciting but very impressive looking as far as filmmaking is concerned. This part of the film is really an achievement. Of course during the whole course of this bloody battle the character Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) never gets hurt. So while this is going on Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin) are off in another direction battling Christopher Lee. So they're really is three stories going on at the same time. Where the first film took its time in its narrative this film plunges head first into action. The two films really are different. This is an extremely well made film and Peter Jackson should be proud but I don't think its a great film. Impressive looking and very entertaining but I'm hoping the third film will be better.