Just as spectacular as the first installment of the Trilogy.

Rating: 10/10 (15 September 2003)

I have to admit, I'm completely won over by the masterful work director Peter Jackson has done with Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. I'm not particularly a fan of George Lucas' "Star Wars" movies and thought the "Star Trek" films to be inconsistent, so fantasy isn't exactly my thing. But after watching "Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers" back to back the past few nights, I'm absolutely stunned by the magnitude of the achievement here.
This film picks up right where the first installment left off, with the fellowship having dissolved. Frodo leaves with Sam as company so that he may take the ring to Mordor and destroy it in the fire from which it was created. The others leave to fight the battle for Middle Earth as Saruman has unleashed his army from Isengard.
The battle scenes between the men of Rohan and their elf allies against the urik-hai, the half men, half orc creatures bred by Saruman, are amazing. Digital technology plays a major part in these scenes, but as mentioned in a previous review, it is so seamless with the real cinematography that the result is just stunning.
Gollum, a digitally created image, plays a major part in this installment. He's one of the classic characters in Tolkien's work, and I wondered how they could possibly portray him as I imagined, but the result is perfect. The digital artists struck just the right balance between a prowling little creature attempting to regain the ring and a pitiful figure twisted by its power.
Like the first movie in the trilogy, this one is long (three hours plus), but it's such an epic film and full of so many characters and so much detail, that you're sucked in anyways. At times, you're reminded of Shakespeare, and at other times one of those Disney cartoons from before the war, like "Snow White."
These films are a wonderful creation and I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I have. "The Return of the King" should be awesome.