Brilliant!... (again)...

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2012)

Peter Jackson and his team did not disappoint again, another epic film with tremendous scope. I also have to mention again the original music by Howard Shore; another great score with some really great themes. As far as performances go, well everybody did a great job but those that stood out (for me) were; Elijah Wood as Frodo, Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Sean Astin as Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn and Bernard Hill as Theodin (King of Rohan). Also worthy of note were; Billy Boyd as Pippin, Dominic Monaghan as Merry, Orlando Bloom as Legolas, John Rhys-Davies as Gimli/Voice of Treebeard, Liv Tyler as Arwen, Miranda Otto as Eowyn, David Wenham as Faramir, Christopher Lee as Saruman, Karl Urban as Eomer and not forgetting Andy Serkis as Gollum/Smeagol.
Having recently read the book I did find that this departed from J.R.R.Tolkien's original to a much larger extent than the first instalment 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. Much more is put into establishing background and motive than in the text and, to a large extent, it works pretty well. It does, however, distract from the task at hand in places and I did find it a little heavy going here and there. I can't, on the other hand, fault the production; it is all brilliantly brought together and it looks fantastic! The battle scenes are immense and to be admired. It's certainly one, despite a couple of misgivings, I still rate very highly.
SteelMonster's verdict: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
My score: 9.1/10
You can find an expanded version of this review on my blog: Thoughts of a SteelMonster.