Curate's egg - parts of it are excellent ...

Rating: 5/10 (27 December 2002)

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** A disappointment after the Fellowship, although likely enough to be enjoyed by those who haven't read the book.
First the good news, the stuff that was written by Tolkein has been treated really well. The action sequences are spectacular, the flying Nazgul better than I imagined, and Gollum is the best bit of CG animation ever. Gollum's schizophrenia is dealt with superbly, as is his relationship with Frodo.
Given the head-start into the film (the first chapter of the book is dealt with at the end of Fellowship), it would have been nice to get to the end of it. Peter J now has to compress a lot of missed storyline plus the whole of the Return into the final film. So why all the new material?
Stuff I could have done without:
(1) The Arwen/Elrond/Galadriel dream sequences. They are not in the book and add nothing to the film. I assume Hugo Weaving, Liv Tyler and Cate Blanchett are on three-film contracts so they needed something to do.
(2) The use of Gimli as a butt of humour. I thought the Terry Pratchett material about not telling the difference between male and female dwarves was particularly out-of-place.
(3) Gandalf quoting Churchill, "The battle for France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to start" (substitute Helm's Deep and Middle Earth)
(4) The misinterpretation of Faramir, and the abduction of Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath. As played, Faramir is just a slightly less competent version of Boromir, with the same character flaws. The point of Tolkein's Faramir is that he is different from Boromir, with no ambition to use the Ring.
Stuff I would like to have seen (basically the rest of the book):
(1) The meeting with Merry and Pippin at Isengard, which would have given closure to one of the open issues at the end of Fellowship
(2) Frodo and Sam's encounter with Shelob, which would allow their sequence to finish with the same cliffhanger that Tolkein wrote
(3) Gimli's argument with Eomer about the beauty of Galadriel
(4) The bonding between Gimli and Legolas, and their discussions about the relative beauty of mines and forests. Sorry Peter, only 6 out of 10, could do better.