A brilliant film-- a not so brilliant adaptation.

Rating: Null/10 (28 July 2003)

If one takes LOTR:TTT on it's own, without judging it against the original source, it's everything one could ever hope for. It's visually gorgeous, and the acting is simply incredible. Special points go to Brad Dourif's EXCELLENT portrayal of Grima Wormtounge, and to Christopher Lee's Saruman. Lee has just the right mix of truly awe-inspiring evil and petty villainy. Let's hope that in the next film, the twisted relationship of these characters is maintained. Viggo Mortensen is the heart and soul of this fim-- though Aragorn seems slightly out of character, this is no fault of Mortensen's...he's a truly talented actor who has made a rather static fictional character his own.
However...this IS an adaptation of Tolkien's work, right? So one would hope for a certain...adherence to the original. Making the ten page sequence at Helm's Deep into about half the film was a bit much, but I can handle it. Leaving out Shelbob, Saruman yelling out the window, and Pippin and the palintiri...well, okay. Moving Boromir's death to the end of FOTR...I'll get over it. But...Faramir. Oh, sweet god, Peter Jackson, what did you do to Faramir!?
Now, I just said I didn't mind the way Mortensen developed the character of Aragorn beyond the bare outlines in the book. This is because he maintained true to the basic things that make Aragorn ARAGORN. (Or Strider, or Elessar, or Estel, or Dunadan, or Elfstone, or whatever the heck he's calling himself now.) But Faramir--and this is no fault of David Wenham's, he did an excellent job with what he was given-- what happened to Faramir amounts to character assassination! They made him...BoromirLite, not the sensitive, completely individual character that he was intended to be. And that, I think, is the movie's biggest flaw-- turning a peaceful character like Faramir into a warrior like his brother is ignoring everything that Tolkien is trying to say...Faramir's differences from Denethor and Boromir are what make much of the plot of ROTK, but it's not set up for that now. (Plus, we're minus one giant spider, one palantir-sneaking hobbit, and one VERY imperiled Ringbearer at the moment.)