Exciting fantasy sequel

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2009)

This film starts off where "The Fellowship of the Ring" leaves off; Frodo and Sam are on their own and heading to Mordor with the sinister Sméagol who has promised to guide them through the mountains, Merry and Pippin are in the hands of Saruman's Orcs as they return to Isengard and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are in pursuit until they are diverted into helping King Theoden of Rohan.
The film switches between the three groups so we never get chance to forget what the characters are doing. I think this is the only film that I've seen where the narrative follows different groups who never meet each other. The action is even more spectacular then the previous film, the storming of Helm's Deep is one of the most spectacular scenes that I've ever seen, also amazing are the realism of Sméagol, the CGI creature based on the movements of Andy Serkis and the Ents, huge creatures that look like walking trees.
The actors did a great job, especially Elijah Wood as Frodo as he approached Mordor you could almost feel the increasing weight of the ring hanging from his neck. The cast of characters here is quite a lot larger than the previous film giving us some great new characters, the most obvious is Sméagol who was only glimpsed before but there is also the wonderfully vile Grima Wormtongue and Eowyn, King Theoden's niece who is smitten with Aragorn.
If you haven't seen any of the Lord of the Rings films I strongly recommend this but only after watching The Fellowship of the Ring, if you don't watch that it will be hard to understand what happens here.