A Movie Movie

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2002)

This time, there's less J.R.R. Tolkien and more Peter Jackson--and that's a good thing. While still hewing close to the storyline in this second installment of the `Lord Of The Rings' trilogy, Jackson emphasizes character development over Tolkien's obsessions with myth and language and the results are far more evocative and immediate than the same events in the book. Jackson seems stubbornly determined to make a movie and not a mere representation of the novel, and as a result, there are liberties taken with the narrative (the book's fans will occasionally be disoriented but will adjust) that are used to open up not only the cinematic possibilities but to provide credible character motivations that Tolkien could not or would not provide. (Minor characters dismissed simplistically in the book such as Wormtongue, well-played by Brad Dourif, here help give emotion to the story and move the tale along in a convincing fashion.) The film, which follows three separate plot threads, is almost all cliffhangers and non-stop action (culminating in the enormous battle at Helm's Deep, which essentially comprises the final third of the film) and you're left with the delighted impression that Jackson's inspiration stems from serials and swashbucklers of the thirties as well as Cecil B. DeMille's `The Ten Commandments'. Overall, there's less balance than `The Fellowship Of The Ring'--this is out of Jackson's control as the ruggedness of the terrain dictates the plot--and it's relentlessly dark; but Andrew Lesnie's fluid camera once again captures the majesty of Jackson's larger-than-life vision and Grant Major's production design situates wooden-hut villages and stone fortresses in perfect harmony with the mountainsides that figure so prominently. Enormously satisfying, this is another superb complement--without being an imitation--to Tolkien's work and an outright cinematic triumph in its own right.