Absoulutly Amazing!

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2002)

Absolutely Astounding!
First of all, I would like to point out that I have read and own the books. I also own the FOTR DVD and the FOTR extended DVD (which is superb compared to the original theatre release of the film), so I do have a lot of prior knowledge. Being a New Zealander its great to see your home country portrayed in such a beautiful way on the screen, and relate to it personally. But now to the film itself. After reading many online reviews, I have gained the knowledge that about a fifth of the people who saw the film were disappointed because it `left out to much stuff and changed it around to much!'. GET OVER IT! Do they want the film to be a week long, its a film, you just cant make a film in the same way you make a book! Also, an extended film will be coming out next year which will have extra footage, and from experience from the last film, the extended version will be even better. I strongly agree that the changes were for the best and heightened the film's drama and etc. As you probably already know, Gollum, is CGI and you also may have read that he he is excellent. To be really honest... he is. Nothing compares to he, he is brilliantly performed by the talented Andy Serkis and incredibly designed by the Weta Digital team. The wise and elegant Ents are more than what I hoped for, and even though at times you can identify that they are not entirely real, but this is compensated by the performance's of Merry, Pippin and Treebeard. The incredible Helms Deep battle scene looks flawlessly real, and has all of the jokes from the book between Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn intertwined (plus more) I wouldn't be so bold to say that this film is `better' than FOTR, because each of them is unique and excellent in their own ways! This again (as FOTR) has proven to be a spectacular achievement, congrats to Peter Jackson and his team (P.S. PJ has another cameo), for successfully bringing to life this masterpiece. A definite 10 out of 10. I loved it.