Awesome in its own right, but not as great as Fellowship

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2002)

WARNING: SPOILERS
I really liked this film. It had everything. It made me laugh, it made me scream and it almost made me cry. But for just some reason, it did not seem as beautiful and as dark as 'Fellowship'. One thing that probably contributed to this was the choppy editing and jerky camera work. It was also not as faithful to its book as 'Fellowship'. I understand that the director could not possibly put it everything into a movie that was in the book but more could have been added if, for one thing, they left out the corny love triangle whatnot between Aragorn, Arwen and Eowyn. Miranda Otto was okay as Eowyn (she did not appear that important in the film) but Liv Tyler should banish herself in shame for leaping into that cesspit of love and hurt feelings and prophecy, and for dragging Hugo Weaving with her. If Viggo was so into the character of Aragorn, wouldn't he have anything to say about this?
There were also minor things in the movie that just bothered me because there was no point in them. Like how about those Wraiths riding on the dragons when they're supposed to be riding on winged horses? How about all the lines getting screwed up and said by the wrong people (when Theoden says that ever famous line 'Alas the old wither and linger while the young perish' or something like it, he was talking about Boromir, not Theodred). Why does Theoden look like the Pope from South Park? I'm don't even want to talk about Faramir. And I bet surfing on the shield was Orlando Bloom's idiotic idea.
But now on with the good stuff. A couple actors really really shone in this film. Screw Legolas, GO Gimli, Son of Gloin. Gollum rocks! Andy Serkis did the best job out of all them, including Elijah and Viggo. I want the words to the song he sang about the fish. I liked it how he always referred to Sam as the 'fat hobbit.' That cracked me up. Grima Wormtounge also ruled. He gave a pretty humane performance. Dude, is Eowyn crazy? I bet anything Aragorn or Faramir can't wax poetic like he did. Another cool person was Haldir, the ONLY cool elf, but unfortunately, like in the Fellowship when Boromir was offed, and Haldir got the ax as well (literally). That was when I almost cried. Three cheers for the Orcs! Grishnakh and Ugluk and Lugdush and Snaga, hooray, can't wait to meet Shagrat and Gorbag in the next film. At Helm's Deep, though, that one Uruk-Hai with the sparkler torch greatly resembled an Olympic marathon runner. The Haradrim also ruled.
All in all, excellent, but Peter Jackson, please, please, please reduce Arwen to the protected, wizened, unseen elven princess that she really is. Please do not make Shelob look corny and please do not (by my friends' popular demand as well as my own) skip the scene where Grima throws the Palantir out the window and when Sam runs into the wall of Barad-dur. I give it three stars out of four.