From the director of "Bad Taste", who made LOTRFOR, i.e. "Good Taste", now has made "Better Taste"

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2003)

Warning: Possible spoilers
I actually enjoyed Peter Jackson's older, more disturbing movies such as "Bad Taste" (ironically, his first one), "Meet The Feebles", and "Dead-Alive". That's because he's a no B.S. director who lets his imagination take him to great heights. Yet he also can be a gentle story teller, as seen in "Heavenly Creatures".
So no doubt, when he was set to direct the LOTR series, I had no doubts that he would do a smash up job. The result? Well, we could easily call FOTR "Good Taste". George Lucas should take a refresher in storytelling from Jackson and his wife Fran Walsh. Yes, the story had been written, but to adapt it for the screen is in itself a rewriting of a story in itself. If one wants to see a truly bad adaptation, just watch Ralph Bakshi's LOTR, and see how one could trash a simple storyline. And no doubt, being a fan of Tolkien helped Jackson be more critical of himself. Jackson juggles backround storytelling and many characters with beautiful cinematography and dazzling special effects.
So what does this have to do with LOTR:T2T? This movie should be called "Better Taste". While I loved FOTR, it did drag at certain moments, but this is simply due to storyline and not to bad writing. The first thing that T2T does right is that it doesn't catch us up with LOTR, which in itself is a blessing. Quite frankly, Jackson not only did a brilliant job of making 3 films at one time, but also knew that eventually, everyone will be watching these films back to back on their mutlit-DVD players with HDTV, so why bore us with redundant material? Second, Jackson knows where to use CGI environments and how to use them. If we want to see serenity, we use the real thing. When we want see an ominous scene, especially at night, CGI works beautifully. And this is where another previously famous fantasy movie's first 2 prequels fail. And while we are on the subject, let's get on Gollum, the CGI character who almost steals the show from the human characters. Not only is he made more realistically than another dumb CGI character (i.e. Jar Jar Binks from SW:TPM), but the team that created him really knows human emotions and how do interpret them digitally. And let's not forget the beautiful job with the Ents as well! Kudos to WETA! And finally, Jackson shows us how great a visualist he is. Scenes such as the confrontation between the Ring Wraith and Frodo, the Battle of Helm's Deep, and Frodo in the Swamp are some of the most beautiful pictures ever put on film.
So will LOTR:ROTK be "Best Taste"? If the current trend stays, then most definitely yes. 10/10