Enjoyable, but unnecessarily distracting (Spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2003)

I was disappointed. That's not to say that LOTR:TTT is a bad film; it's just a distractingly unfaithful adaptation of the book.*
Tolkien fans who thought that Jackson et al. brought LOTR:FOTR to life on screen - judiciously editing what could have been a laborious travelogue into a damned good film - will be disappointed at the wholesale bloody-minded changes in plot and character in LOTR:TTT.
Having said that, there are some really beautifully done scenes in the film that in some cases improved on the images I had in my own mind. The Oliphaunts were exactly as I had pictured them. The Ents didn't match the picture in my mind's eye and my mind's eye had to give way because the film version was better. The Elves at Helm's Deep were...uh...wait a minute. Forget that one. Frodo's confrontation with the Nazgul in Osgiliath was...uh...hmmm. Damn, better skip that one, too.
* ObPedant: To the portion of LOTR:TTT not snipped off and moved to FOTR or ROTK.