tompakenham

Brilliant and gripping. Gollum follows on from The Two Towers by outdoing all other cast members. Gandalf improved again. Was surprised by Jackson's homo-erotic interpretation of a) smeagull + the guy he murders and b) hobbits in general...hadn't picked up on that in the book myself. Fabulous battle sequences, perhaps focussing too much on the Riders of Rohan and not enough on the gradual defence and loss of Minas Tirith; I suppose there just wasn't time. Only problem is that the film is overly faithful to the book in winding things up - i.e. spends too long portraying the end of the fellowship and return to normality. Some of it is truly cringeworthy and sadly out of context. Luckily though, it doesn't detract that much from what is an exceptional ending to an exceptional trilogy.

I also had the opportunity of seeing this film at the London Film Festival, but not having grown up in the 70s approached it with few expectations and even less knowledge of what the period was like. The actors all turned in good performances, with Tom Courtenay especially memorable. The direction was slick and the film consequently flowed smoothly. Some jokes were hilarious and reflected the overall strength of the screenplay, which was packed with novel ideas and witticisms. All in all a very friendly and fun film that I would highly recommend.