Not as true to Tolkien as TFoTR but still a great film!

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2002)

Trying to compress The Lord of the Rings into three three hour movies is a herculean effort. Peter Jackson and his crew are doing an excellent job.
TTT was choppy in the original text, cutting back and fourth between the parallel story lines of the fragmented fellowship, and the movie reflects this as well.
As for the cgi I was very pleased with treebeard, and gollum was just amazing. The battle of helms deep was incredible.
The warg riders were a bit jerky, reminding me of the devil dogs from Ghostbusters...
I think Farimir was portrayed a bit more evil than in the text, but I've not re-read it recently.
The conservation overtones, present in the text, but amplified in the movie are a nice touch.
Some audiences may be alienated by all the white faces of the good guys, and the predominantly dark ones of the men in the legions of Sauron...