Wow (a bit of a spoiler)

Rating: Null/10 (11 November 2003)

What an absolutely great movie. I really, really love the Lord of the Rings movies. This one, I thought, was just as good as "The fellowship of the Ring", or perhaps even better. In the book at some points Tolkiens' writing is just to slow so that some paragrahp's are just to long. In the movie's there is just no time to go into every detail, which, in this case, is just for the good.
I can see that this movie is made by people who just care about the story and it's characters. Although the movie is almost black and white, the way it looks is just astonishing. Peter Jackson did take a lot of care about the way things look. It's just as the way Tolkien describes it. Watching it, it made me belief that I didn't watch actors acting not being human in New Zealand, but that I really did see hobbits, elfs, orks, ents, dwarfs and people going on a quest in Middle-earth. The acting is perfect. I really enjoyed watching Viggo Mortensen, Liv Taylor, Bernhard Hill, Ian Mckellen, Orlando Bloom and all the others become their characters. The battle of Helms deep was amazing, very dark and violent, but it took my breath away.
The best part of the movie though wasn't the big battle in Helms Deep, but the journey of Frodo, Sam and Gollum. Their relationship is very complex and I'm very thankful that Peter Jackson spent a lot of screening time on their interaction. Elijah Wood and Sean Austin are really very good as Frodo and Sam, but the most noticeable actor in this case was definitely Andy Serkis as Gollum. When I read the book I already thought that Gollum was a very interesting character. The way he interacts with him self, his double feelings about Frodo (Gollum hates him, because Frodo has his precious, but Smeagol adores him), the way that the ring still has an enslaving effect on him... Although I know that in the end he wants to trick Frodo and Sam to get to the ring, I couldn't help but feeling sorry for him, just the way Frodo did. Gollum is really a pitiful and sad character, who has become a sort of monster, because of the influence of the ring, and NOT because he was born like that. I love the way Andy Serkis portrays all of this and makes him a very deep and believable.
Over all. If you haven't watched this movie yet, go and see it. You won't be sorry. I can't wait to see The Return of the King.of the King.