Great, but not the greatest yet.

Rating: 9/10 (2 January 2003)

Mild spoilers
Great film, full of great action scenes, directing, acting, and the scenic backdrops blew me away. However I enjoyed the first one more. I was expecting, like everyone else, TTT to top FOTR in just about every aspect, which it did not.
The "weakness" with this film compared to the first, is not following up the great characters and their portrayals on screen. Maybe the fact that the first film was supposed to get us into the characters more, and the 2nd is to emphasize new characters, (which was mediocre) however, we need to care about all principle characters in the moment, we don't want to remember how they were, we want to re-discover what made us love them in the first film. This I don't believe was well done.
Scenic shots, and backgrounds are absolutely fantastic. In FOTR, we had a great comparison of these `small' hobbits in such a large world. In TTT, I had that same feeling. The size of the Black Gate and Helm's Deep stood out above all, especially the remarkable battle scene that took place.
Overall, of course it is a definite recommendation, but don't expect the acting to surpass the first, but expect the overall astonishing visuals to keep you gripping your seat, asking for more. It will be a tortuous 12 months for the next. ****