Pretty darned good but...

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2003)

...not as good as Fellowship. Loved Smeagol - more expressive than most of the human actors in the film. But I was reminded of watching the Baski animated version - this section of the saga suffers from cutting between gripping stuff and tedious stuff, especially Merry and Pippin on bloody boring Treebeard. Loved the addition of the warg attack but it did have the effect of making Middle Earth seem tiny and, if Saruman's forces could reach Rohan so quickly then why didn't he head straight for Helm's Deep and stop them getting in? Eh?
Also, the battle left me cold. Compared to Boromir's last stand, all these computer-generated t**ts running about were just unconvincing. And why is Gimli nothing but clumsy comic relief? All that 'toss me' stuff - terrible.
But, by far the worst crime here is Legolas skateboarding down the steps. I expected Huey Lewis and the News to kick in.
That aside, I will watch the DVD over and over but I'm hoping the extended version, as with Fellowship of the Ring, will iron out the pacing problems and give us more character study to balance the action.