I could go on watching forever...

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2002)

This second part of the trilogy starts right in the middle of the action and goes on for over three hours without ever lowering the excitement. It ends a little bit sooner than the second book does - probably to offer Christopher Lee a chance to appear in the third part as well - and left me with only one notion: "What? Is it over already???"
I watched the movie at midnight on opening day, and at three o'clock at night I was not one little bit tired. All I wanted was the movie to continue right now - but I guess we'll have to wait another year...
Compared to "The Fellowship", this movie has fewer epic moments (as Boromirs death, the Hobbits being hunted by the Nazgul or the forming of the fellowship) but is somehow told faster without focusing too much on action scenes alone. The shifting between the three different storylines (Rohan (Aragorn), Rohan (Merry/Pippin) and Mordor) makes the movie much more interesting than the book with its very rigid way of telling the story. This way, not a hint of boredom comes up, and the huge cast of characters has a chance to be shown in equal parts. Certainly, the story in Mordor was somehow kept shorter than it could have been, but Jackson had to cut somewhere and he did right by rather highlighting the events happening in Rohan.
As for Gollum: I would never have imagined that technology was thus far advanced! The facial impressions of Gollum were tremendous, at first I really was appalled about how ugly he was, but Jackson really captured the essence of Gollum and made him one of the most sophisticatedly portrayed characters of the film. An Oscar for Gollum? It's an opportunity!
Many of the other characters were developed further like Aragorn, Sam or Gimli whose comic relief elements were just right: Not too much, but certainly right on the mark!
The only thing I cannot really fathom right now is the way the Arwen character goes, how Eowyn fits in the picture compared to the books and why the Rohan storyline ended right after the Helms Deep battle instead of in Isengard.
Oh yes: And the attack on Helms Deep was great in the beginning and in the middle, but in the end - after the Rohirrim showed up - it seemed rather hastened, it ended too suddenly for my taste.
Not to mention the reality check when Aragorn and Gimli are fighting alone against hundreds of Orcs - but well, they are heroes after all, so who am I to criticize :-) ?