Not the LOTR, and not a good movie

Rating: 1/10 (19 January 2003)

OK - since the movie is definately NOT the Two Towers (outside of the same character names and the fact there is a ring involved), the movie really needs to be seen without the Tolkien fanatics with rose-colour glasses. The movie STUNK! The acting was sub-standard (Gandalf 'fighting' with Saruman through Theoden was hysterically bad!). The plot was only loosely put together - actions of characters seem to come from nowhere (Merry standing up to Fangorn, Samwise's preaching, Aragorn's 'issues'). The actions of the characters were just bad, the fighting scenes - although spectacular in vision, were just sadly portrayed (Aragorn and Gimli 'jumping' into the middle of dozens of orcs and not getting scratched, horses ridding into the middle of 10,000 orcs and not one of the orcs seems capable of killing the horses, horses riding into 'swiss pikes' and not getting a scratch?????)
on the good side - the cinematography was PHENOMINAL; the CGI is some of the best in movies today (you could barely tell gollum was not real); the orcs siege warfare was historically accurate (the use of ladders with people on them; the breaching of the walls; the use of the rams and it's security - very well done).
Overall - movie 1/10; visual and historical 10/10 (but final rating must still be 1/10 - just a poorly done story).