Good, but not as good as the first

Rating: 10/10 (19 December 2002)

Warning - Spoilers
How can a book so well known as this need a spoiler warning in its film review? Partly because Peter Jackson has (necessarily) changed the story in order to give the viewer some of the background story that Tolkien put in the appendices, and partly to make it more cinematic. I can put up with the need to include Liv Tyler, despite the fact that Arwen does not appear in the book at all, and I can just about put up with the film finishing a couple of chapters early - but why completely change a character? Faramir is made out to be some kind of monster, carrying on where his brother left off. To me the whole character in the book was the antithesis of Boromir, well cultured and studious, a character which will be required in the third film, but here this has been hindered by the handling of the minor part he played in this film.
The effects in the film are generally good and I can't complain that they don't fit with my minds picture of them from the book. The Nazgul's flying beasts are superbly done, but the Gollum is unbelievably seemless. It is the best piece of CGI I have ever seen, and deserves an Oscar for that alone. A bit too cute for my liking (the Ralph Bakshi Gollum fit the character better for me) but Andy Serkis deserves the Oscar for supporting actor for the voice acting alone.
Some of the other acting was a bit wooden in places (and I don't mean the Ents), Faramir for example, and Grima was just not acted at all, just the lines read out. Sam and Frodo didn't shine here either. Finally too much was made of the comedy of Gimli, here and there, yes, but one left the film feeling that he was a bit of a joke.
Overall, 9 out of 10. Let's hope The Return of the King returns to the form shown in Fellowship.