Not as good as FOTR

Rating: 8/10 (12 January 2003)

Contains Spoilers I waited a year for this film. Overall, it was a disappointment to me. As a real Tolkien fan, I loved the first film and understood most alterations to the book as more or less necessary for shortening the plot to three and a half hours. I love the long DVD version even more than the shorter cinema version as the extension calms the journey a little bit, so the watcher can really see what is happening.
In the second film TTT the sets, tricks and character looks are again excellent. The best persons in my humble opinion are Wormtongue and of course: Gollum really put to live, the most interesting person even in the books; here a real character.
What I don't like are the alterations to the book, as they replace plot with massacre! A chapter in the book is made the central part in the film, lasting may be half an hour while eight chapters are left out and shifted partly to the third film, as the last scene clearly implies. That the battle is changed: replacement of the rangers by elves and Erkenbrand by Eomer is not the problem, but for example the Ents: Why do they turn up at Isengard so suddenly after the decision to do nothing at the Ent Thing and the rethinking of Treebeard ad the border of Fangorn? Or why does Frodo face a Nazgul at Osgiliath who should clearly feel the presence of the ring and restart the hunt for it at Osgiliath? A decade of plot outline from Tolkien is replaced by holes!
Overall a must see film, but a clear decrease after FOTR. What will we see in the third film? The book alone has enough plot for two Jackson films, but elements of the TTT book have to be added to Return of the king, namely Shelob and the joining of Merry/Pippin with Gandalf/Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli (and Eowyn!!!) for further adventures together.