(caution - contains minor spoilers throughout, and some biggies!!!)
The beginning with Sméagol and Déagol is superb, and cuts to Gollum with Frodo and Sam as they approach the Black Mountains. After that, there is just so much to take in! The Sméagol/Gollum biphasia especially is handled superbly here! Andy Serkis, I believe, deserves an Oscar for Best Actor! He was superb! (Okay, you only actually se him on screen during the Sméagol/Déagol scene, but he IS Gollum!)
The mustering of the Rohirrim at Dunharrow is spectacular in its own right, and that's just them gathering together! As for when they charge en-masse towards Sauron's army outside Minas Tirith!!! Words fail me!
The march of the army of the Witch King from Minas Morgul is fantastic - you wonder will the line of Orcs and Trolls ever end! The invasion of Osgiliath is superb - not quite on a par with the beach scene in "Saving Private Ryan" (that, after all, was an authentic recreation of an event still within living memory), but breathtaking nonetheless. The assault on Minas Tirith, likewise, is simply stunning! Trolls in full plate armour!!! Orcs by the tens of thousands!!! Dozens of Mûmakil! And the Nazgul shredding through cavalry like the Luftwaffe!!!
Shelob is, in my opinion, the only disappointment in the entire film - and even then, that's only relative! In any other movie, she would have been a highlight! I had imagined her to be larger, heavier, more ponderous, and to have that peculiar dim greenish glow that surrounds Minas Morgul itself. But, like I said, that is only relative to the rest of the movie!!!
There were scenes in this movie where, if I had less self-control, I would have been cheering and whooping with glee! As it was, I was doing a muted punch-in-the-air and whispering "Yes!" at them!
MAJOR SPOILER ALERT - If you haven't read the book, <u>do not</u> read the next paragraph!!!
Spoiler
I have to admit, there were some points where I found myself with a lump in the throat, and two where I actually did cry!!! The lumps in the throat came when Faramir led the Gondorian lancers in a futile Light Brigade-esque charge against the Orcs encamped at Osgiliath at the behest of Denethor while Pippin was forced to sing a song for Denethor, at the Cracks of Doom when Sméagol falls, at the Grey Havens when Gandalf, Bilbo and Frodo are saying goodbye, and at the charge of the Rohirrim - there is just something about the sight of 10,000 cavalry charging a quarter-million orcs that stirs something deep within!
The tears came, unsurprisingly, at the death of Théoden, and at the end when Sam walks up to the front door, picks up his daughter and says "Well, I'm back".
The tears came, unsurprisingly, at the death of Théoden, and at the end when Sam walks up to the front door, picks up his daughter and says "Well, I'm back".
Without a doubt, this is the finest film of the three. It stays more true to the book than any of the other movies, although obviously there are still changes. Saruman, as predicted, does not appear in the cinema release (although the scenes with Christopher Lee are due to appear in the extended DVD due out next November). Legolas gets up to his old tricks again when he takes out a Mumakil single-handed! And Eowyn seriously kicks ass!
But despite the changes, this is a film that even Tolkien purists may be able to enjoy. There are no deaths/survivals/plot twists to surprise those familiar with the book (although Merry recovers rather swiftly after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields!) but all of the important plot lines are there, virtually unchanged.
It may just be the caffeine running through my system, it may just be adrenaline, it may be the lack of sleep, but whatever it is, at this moment in time I believe this may well be greatest movie I have ever seen. It certainly overtakes Spirited Away as my favourite film of this year! Time will tell, but I believe that even in ten years time, I will still feel this to be the single greatest movie ever.
If this doesn't clean up at the Oscars, there is no justice.
