We want more!

Rating: 10/10 (12 January 2003)

I've seen the movie twice, during its premier week of late night showings. Both times it kept me on the edge of my seat. Both times my friends and I left the theater with the same thought: we want more!!! The movie showed everything I wanted to see from the book. The special effects are breath taking and Gollum is superb. Yes, the movie does depart from the book (I have read the trilogy twice) and I have heard disgruntled LOTR fans commenting on that while leaving the theater, but to me it does not take from its value. I'll definitely see it again, and again. One viewing (and in my case two) is not enough to catch everything that this visual feast offers. In comparison with Fellowship of the Ring, this movie is lighter, both in appearance (wide open sunlit spaces of Rohan) and character (the comic angle added in competition between Gimli and Legolas amidst the darkness of Helm's Deep), and the darkness is now more within (the `possessed' king Theoden, the tormented Gollum/Smeagol, and Frodo becoming more and more like the wretched creature). Thumbs up and we can not wait for the Return of the King.