Part II of the greatest undertaking in the history of film!!

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2002)

This movie overall is even better then the theatrical release of "Fellowship of the Rings"!! (it still falls shy of the special edition). It is important to remember that this is not a sequel, and thank God Peter Jackson and Co. didn't try to make a sequel out of it. Though of course the setting, plot, and characters are the same, there is little similarity between the films. There is no replication of the movements of the first film like most sequels because this is the same story.. We've had our (unrequested) one year intermission and now the first movie is finally continuing, placing us in the middle of freytag's (sp) pyramid. The action is rising without any cause for such things as an introduction.. exactly as it should be. Hardcore book fans (such as myself) will see many departures from the book, Jackson was not quite as good about following this one to the letter, but as a whole the movie was such a great work that those blasphemies can be forgiven: I've seen it twice and I'm going back tomorrow. They may have made changes but they didn't make any mistakes. SEE THIS MOVIE AT ANY AND ALL COSTS! But you may wish to watch "Fellowship", the first third, before you hit the theatre, and of course you'll cry and rage over this new year-long intermission before the final third is granted. All as it should be.