Excellent movie with a couple major deviations from the book.

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2002)

Overall an excellent movie.
I was concerned about the CGI character Gollum. I was afraid that it was going to be another Jar Jar Binks (God save us from ever having another of those). I was happily surprised. The character was nicely done. It was easy to forget that he was not real. He was an active part of many scenes, but was also just there in others - not contributing to the action, just reacting to it, which made him seem real. Nice job on that!
The Flooding of Isengard was fantastic. I have heard people say that they thought the Pippin/Merry/Treebeard thread in the movie was boring, but it really was done well. It was needed to help counterpoint the otherwise very dark overall story. The Ents were flawless.
The addition of the elves at the battle at Helm's Deep was an interesting change from the book. I guess that it was done to more integrate the world of the elves into the story so that Liv Tyler can have a bigger role. OK. Fine.
The deviation from the book where Faramir tried to deliver the ring to his father is not needed. Faramir was never tempted to take possession of the ring. I have no idea why this choice was made. I feel is unfair to the character and really lost the idea of the "difference" between Faramir and Boromir. This difference is very important, and will be difficult to regain in The Return of the King. There was just no reason to do this.
Despite the Faramir thing, I am impressed with the movie. Not quite as well done and true to the story as The Fellowship of the Ring, but still an excellent effort.