Brilliant but still a bit disappointing

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2002)

Ok, there is no doubt about it...this movie is amazing. It delivers the right amount of action, romance and suspense. Helm's Deep was very impressive! The special effects were class and Gollum was done so convincingly that I actually forgot he was a computer animated character! The characters are developing more and more - Aragorn was portrayed superbly. Also, the relationship between Frodo and Gollum is focused on effectively in the film.
However, having said all of that, I have to add that I was disappointed nonetheless. Not a lot actually happened in this film apart from Helm's Deep. What happened to the Ents? They were hardly in it! Eomer, Merry and Pippin, as well as Gandalf, hardly featured in the film despite having extensive roles in the book! And why on earth did they make Faramir into some sort of "bad guy"??? I was not impressed with the changes in the film. In fact I was pretty irritated. I guess it serves me right for reading the book again just before watching the film!
All in all a very, very good film...