You 'd better stick to the book

Rating: 6/10 (15 January 2003)

Major deviations from the book. The sad thing is that most of them take plot out of the film instead of adding to it. There was no need for instance for poor Theoden to be mentally substituted by Saruman himself (does that mean Saruman could multitask?). A mere plot by his treacherous consultant, finally exposed by Gandalf would do (as in the book). What about this semi romantic and semi metaphysic scene with the elven woman? How does it stick to the plot and what's the relevance with book 2? Nor was it necessary for Gimli and Aragon to anihilate hundreds of orcs, just on their own. And where was that huron tree intervention to save the Helm's Deep? Frankly, I had this feeling I was watching a set of visually impressive video clips, due to the very loose plotline. And that can get tiresome after an hour. Especially since I was waiting for much more.
In a nutshell, visual effects got better, film got worse (Gandalf looks much worse too).
I wonder why second sequels are often worse. Let us hope third gets better.