Not As Good As Fellowship

Rating: 8/10 (31 December 2002)

I have to say that on the whole I certainly did enjoy TTT. However it failed to grab and hold me in the way that Fellowship did. Perhaps it was the characters, or the long sitting time but I felt myself getting restless during the whole film and certainly noticed the three-hour sitting time unlike Fellowship. The battle at Helms Deep was by far the most impressive feature of the entire film. In fact if you take the battle away the rest is pretty unremarkable.
Gollum. He was done very well. After the debacle of Jar Jar Binks in the new Star Wars films I was dreading the thought of another cgi main character. However old Gollum was a delight to watch and listen to. The character portray was just about perfect and the cgi far more impressive that Mr Lucas lame effort.
Gollum was by far the most interesting character in the entire movie, he certainly had the most personality, a bit like the holographic Doctor in Star Trek Voyager. I know everyone raves about Aragorn and Legolas but I personally find them to be pretty bland individuals who get by on their brooding manner and handsome faces. They are not very gripping characters and their continual moping wears on you after a time. Merry and Pippin are far more fun to watch.
As stated at the beginning I did enjoy the film but I felt it lacked the emotional impact of FOTR. There was no tear jerking moments like when Gandalf fell in Moria or the death of Boromir, it was just a big slugfest and special effects showcase. Frodo and Sam wandered about in circles most of the time and I felt a bit lost right along with them, like the film was wandering and trying to find its way. Non the less Return Of The King will hopefully put a bit of emotion back into the films and have us pulling at the heart strings like Fellowship did so well.
7/10