Magnificent realisation of Tolkien's epic story continues apace.

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2002)

The difficulty with filming one story in three sections, released in cinemas at one year intervals, lies in maintaining interest through the middle section. The first section of any story introduces us to the main characters and sets the scene for what will unfold thereafter. The concluding section brings to culmination that story, usually through a rising crescendo of events converging together in climactic fashion.
The middle section is the one that causes difficulty because, of necessity, its purpose is to move the plot along to the point where the convergences of the final section begin to happen.
Peter Jackson has done a remarkable thing. He has managed to make the middle section of the story come alive and, in my humble opinion, surpass the superb effort shown in FOTR. The film is remarkable in may ways: the creation of Gollum is a demonstration of what the fusion of human acting and cgi can achieve if applied intelligently and with integrity: The battle scenes are wonderful, awesome and incredible: the epic scale and feel of the film is glorious and inspiring: the acting is uniformly good and in some cases excellent.
I have no difficulty with the aspects where Tolkien's books have not been followed religiously. Their spirit is intact and honoured.
All in all a magnificent realisation of Tolkien's epic story.
Others seem to have quibbled with the film somewhat. I believe that some people have still not grasped the essential truth that this is NOT a sequel. It is part of a single ongoing story and I very much look forward to December 2003 when I will get up early one morning, stick on my DVD of FOTR, followed by my DVD of TT, and then proceed to my local cinema to sit back and marvel at ROTK.