Seminal Film, but Does Not Surpass FoTR : Fans of the Legendarium should expect A Few Dissapointments

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2002)

There is no doubt TTT is a seminal film, but few fans of the legendarium will appreciate this sequell to the extent that they did FoTR. I'll provide a brief pro vs. con, beginning with con. I am a fan of the LoTR books and the entire legendarium, so this review certainly is not intended for all (especially those who did not read RotK), and I strongly discourage anyone who have yet to see TTT to read it as well.
***** Heavy Spoilers Therein *****
=======> Cons : =======> - The Elves fighting in Helmes Deep - WHY? I admit I did not expect this. Interposing individual charcters in respect to actions/passages is fine, but a whole peoples? This simply wasn't necessary. The Huorns, which the Ents shepard were not involved, but the Elves. That didn't sit well with me because it dosen't conform to the behaviour of armies amongst the Elves. No Elves army in the entire LoTR book engage in enemies outside their borders. Where are the northern Dunedin, the remnants of Arnor, Aragorn folks who join (albeit after the battle of Helms Deep) with Elrond's sons. I sincerly hope that we will see them in RotK, but I mention them because I initially thought that the unexpected (& from my standpoint unwarrented) Elves army was them.

Edoras/Meduseld(sp.) looked like a fort. It should have been castle-ed. It should have been larger, not Minas Tirith grandness but some grandness nonetheless. The gate certainly should have been bigger. Likewise at the battle of Helms Deep the scales were again significantly shrunk, 300 vs. 10,000, where in fact it was 1000+ .

The Music was not as monumental as FoTR. It was good but not great, certainly not as epic as in FoTR. A completely different ethos here in that respect, and that's too bad.

Faramir Kidnapps Frodo to Osgiliath. I'm fine with Farmair fighting at Osgliliath before he returns to Minas Tirith to tell his father/Gandalf that he encountered Forodo. But for Faramir to fall for the ring to that extent is really a bastardization of his character in the book all under the guise of making us understand that the ring is evil. We get it! Galadriel said her "I will diminish and remain Galadriel" speech; Gandalf had his "don't tempt me, Fordo" one; Aragorn had his "I would have walked with you to the very fires of Mordor" one. Faramir should be similarly redeemed. That is, the speech/state whereby he lusts for the ring is the 'exception' to his personality (unlike Boromir's), he dosen't need to physically kidnap Frodo and -then- have an epipheny. A subtle difference I'm sure not too many people would even notice. Oh well. Onwards.

Gimly is comic relief in the book to an extent but I think this was a bit overdone here. Nonetheless sometimes this worked really well, not always though.

Lagolas has this weird panic attack during the Battle of Helms Deep. Very out-of-character from the book. Very out-of-charachter for FoTR the movie, in fact.

Eomer and Gimly's antagonism-to-friendship relationship was'nt developed. Perhaps the extended version will. Hopefully.

Theoden is too young-looking. I fon't mind that overdramatic bit of exorcism Gandalf pulls on Saruman to remove him from controlling Theoden's mind (even though that didn't happen in the book). Theoden should have gotten younger-looking after that ordeal, but he should have had white hair and beard & quite a bit older.

Gandalf should have been doing more talking/ be less uninvolved. Enough Forodo already, give us some more Gandalf! And maybe some more Saruman as well.

M&P interaction with Treebeard + other Ents could have been handled better. And there should have been more Ent-types (especially spruce-like). The Ents seemed a tad homogenious in their basic architecture. I didn't mind that a dam replaced the channeling of the river Isen's current, but perhaps we could have seen there was a dam ten seconds before we see it being torn down. And the Ent that supposebly burns, should have perhaps burned. Some tragedy especially authentic to the book is good. Did we really need a deus ex machina to rescue him? But maybe I'm off on this one, because it was pretty cool, almost cartoonish.

Where is Eowyn's malaise. This is pretty pivotal stuff here. She should have been a conflicted, suffering, in-love, heroic, and an in-depth complex character. Only some of these traits from the book were integrated in her character.

Gandalf final battle with the Balrog should have had more lighnings involved! I hope the extended version will offer more of that. As the book described, it should have been as if there was a storm up there. But a truly an excelent scene(s) here, so this battle will also be a plus.

Maybe it was the cinema's low framerate, but some battle scenes seemed a bit too jumbled and didn't translate well on-screen. Mybe these will look better on the higher fps DvD.

Some of the scene(s) between Arwen and Aragorn were really good, but some were just plain redundent. A movie of this scope, of this kind, cannot afford any redundance whatsoever though!

Elrond is ready to run away!? Elrond objects to Arwen & Aragorn's union, that's fine I can swallow that change easily. But him ready to sail away and have the Valar protect him far in the West seems awfully wimpy. Elrond has not been one of the foremost leaders of all that is good and wise and true in Middle Earth for a thousand years to simply run-away. Sauron, the last 'large-scale' supernatural evil of the angelic order is largely the reason Elrond remained in Middle Earth for that long. Very out of charachter. What was albeit inadvertant nonetheless translated into a somewhat profound lack of bravery. In the book, Elrond will not leave until all his said and done, and he will send his sons to battle Sauron as well.

=======> Pros : =======> + Gandalf fight/falling scene with the Balrog, his meeting with Aragorn, Gimly & Lagolas, and the Battle of Helms Deep (albeit a bit too cartoonish at times) are spectacular scenes. On the merits of these epic scenes alone, this movie could be considered very worthwhile. Quite a few other really good scenes as well that truly shine.
+ Many passages/attributes from the book were retained (thankfully!). While often interposed in various ways, for a Tolkien fan this is what original Shakespere passages evoke in a shaksperean scholar. It is precious to me.

+ Technical cinematographic qualities of this movie are, once again virtually beyond reproach. The Golum character was sufficient, I thought, I didn't find it as lacking as some other critics here have in it being too trasperently computer-animated-y. Formal beauty of the topography of Middle Earth and of artificial constrcuts is once again absolutely breathtaking. This movie also becomes worthwhile to pay to see at the ciename (not to mention buying/renting the DvD) on these merits alone.
+ Extended version may still make more sense out of the theatrical release. Definitely something to look forward to. Hopefully there is more than half an hour that had been cut-out. Now that everything is said and done, the more stuff that has in fact been cut-out the happier I will be.
===========> Conclusions: ===========> As detailed and undoutedly tedious my 'cons' list has been (especially vis.a.vis the pros), this is still an amazing movie qualifying as a near-masterpiece. I highly doubt I will see a movie I like as much until RotK. The same impetus exists in terms of my love for this movie and my reservations, and this has to do with my affinity to Talkien's LoTR & the rest of his body of work - the most impressive work of fiction (& I'm including scriptures/mythologies in this) ever created. From that standpoint a comparison with the monumental movie, FoTR - who I found revised the book in an acceptable, sensible, & far less significant (not to mention pivotal even) manner - is unavoidable.
Don't get me wrong though, this isn't close to being as bad as Attack of the Clowns/Phantom Menace is when compared to The Empire Strikes Back, let say, but I suspect fans of Tolkien will be slightly (or depending on how pragmatic they are in this sense, more so) dissapointed with the sheer extent of the revisionism vis.a.vis FoTR.
Nonetheless this is clearly a Must-See several-times-over kind of film. Easily earning 9 out of 10 and even higher, but not the 10++ /10 FoTR earned in my view.
The best movie this year, most likely yes. Best movie in decades (as was the case with FoTR, I thought), from how it struck me, unfortunately it did not reach such a high level, not to mention surpassing FoTR. In short, not a cinematic feat as FoTR was, but we can hope that RotK will be! Even surpassing both FoTR & TTT!
To sum up, notwithstanding all these long-whinded qualifications, drawbacks and criticisms (and note that this is merely a seen-it-once from midnight-to-3am impression), I still highly, highly recommended to pay to see this at the cinema. It is, ultimately, very worthwhile. I may not go see it four times as I did FoTR, but I will pay to see it in the theatre again.