Pretty good, but I expect the 3rd film to be the best

Rating: Null/10 (2 February 2003)

I think Fellowship was better than TTT. And having read the books, I feel the third book will make the best transition to film, so I can't wait to see ROTK. It should be the best movie of all 3. I would have liked this movie to end as it did in the book, on a cliffhanger to add even more suspense. I thought the addition of Frodo's encounter with the Nazgul was a good idea because it helped show how Frodo was slowly falling victim to the ring. But, like many others, I didn't like Aragorn's supposed death and dream sequence with Arwen. That was an unnecessary addition. Of course, other changes were made from the book, such as the elves at Helms Deep and the way Treebeard and the Ents decided to bring down Isengard. And Faramir's character was totally distorted from the book. They should have not done this because he was not as seduced by the power of the ring as his brother was.

The cgi effects were awesome. Gollum and his interactions with real people were realistic. And I liked the way the Ents looked. The beasts(not sure what they are) but looked like warthogs on roids were the only really fake looking special effects. And as I recall in the book it talks of Gandalf fighting the balrog in the caves as an entensive battle. It would have been nice for the movie to have shown the battle in the caves more.

FINAL VERDICT: I liked it a lot. But, the first film and I expect the last one will be better. Definitely a must see for all who like fantasy/adventure/sci-fi movies.