This criticism contains SPOILERS

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2002)

Yesterday I have seen TTT. And I must say that I'm quite disappointed. When I first saw FOTR I was a little bit sad that there was no Tom Bombadil and no Barrow-wights and it took me half a year to accept this fact, but I think now, it is true that the film would have been too long nevertheless it is one of my absolute favourite movies! It is absolutely well done, a real masterpiece. But now it seems to me that peter Jackson has invented his own story in TTT. In the first half I asked myself many many times if the changes were really necessary and I got more and more nervous and anxious. In the second half I begun to ask myself if I was in the right film. For example there were no Huorns. Perhaps it was too difficult to realise this scene but I don't think so, it was just more dramatic for the popcorn audience when Eomer came back at the edge of time with thousands of riders of rohan (where the hell did he gather them). Also the Ents seem kinda stupid folk. In the book they are described as the eldest people in Middle-earth and full of wisdom but in the film they seem thin as paper and rather dull ( I was astonished that Ents have such long legs, do they really???). Faramir is strong wise and just, the better part of Denethor's sons but not so in the film. There he first appears as a greedy rough man. Rough was also the real Faramir but not in this bad way. Then they go to Osgiliath! WHY, PETER JACKSON WHY??? There Frodo encounters e nazgul. WHY? That is also just e cheap little bit of `tension' catching. There Faramir decides to let Frodo go. That seems to me not as an intelligent turn. Peter Jackson just had to go back to the book for a while otherwise the film would have gone in a totally different direction than the book. Maybe the worst part of the film was when the people of Edoras was attacked by the Wargs. I have seldom seen such bad CGI's. In EVERY second of this scene you could see that they were CGI's! Puuh. it reminded me in a way of the BBC's documentation with that prehistoric beasts, maybe someone knows them. This is a unbelievable discrepancy to Gollum/Sméagol. Yes, in this film were also good characters and scenes and Gollum/Sméagol was my favourite. He is absolutely lovely and authentic! I have never seen such a realistic CGI. I thank to Andy Serkins because he partly saved the film and I hope he gets the Academy award for that . The schizophrenia of Gollum/Sméagol was, after me, even better presented in the film than in the book. There were also lots of nice landscapes which we know already from the first part. The riders of Rohan in the plains in front of the tall, white mountains is an epic picture and it opens the heart of every Tolkien fan. Also the black gate, Fangorn and the Oliphaunts were very beautiful scenes and they compensate a little bit for the rest. All in all it is a very colossal and entertaining movie for those who have not read the book. But the real Tolkien experts who have read the book many times will be a bit disappointed. I rated it 7/10!
One year ago I longed every day for the continuation of FOTR. And often I asked myself in what fantastic ways Peter Jackson would convert Tolkien's epic story into his movie. But now I think that I have do be afraid every day thinking how far the Return of the King will stray from the real storyline! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Peter Jackson STICK TO THE BOOK!!!