I'll try to keep this spoiler free, but I might slip up, so read at your own risk, okay?
Well, to start I should let you know that all I wanted from the second LotR movie was for it to be more interesting than the second book. And it was, so I'd say it was a pretty good movie. That said, however, I'm sure that LotR purists will want to rip their hair out--or more likely Peter Jackson's--because it was very unlike the book, and not just in nitpicky detailed ways either.
The two things I liked and disliked most about the movie was the character development. Gollum was awesome. His character was totally believable and much more understandable and pitiable in the movie than in the book. Faramir, however, is as bad as the reviews have said he is. Not so much the acting, which was fine, but just in the way that Jackson tweaked the character. Okay, so maybe Faramir was a bit too noble and good in the book (almost to the extent that he was one-dimensional) but in the movie he went too far the other way and lost all of that nobility and righteousness. And since the point of having Faramir was to show that he wasn't his brother, well, I think Jackson's twist on Faramir made him pretty useless and pointless in the movie.
There were lots of departures from the plot of the book, but most of those didn't really bother me too much since I could understand why the changes were made. Faramir, though. ::shakes head:: Yeah, I suspect that when people look back on this trilogy, Faramir will stand out as the biggest criticism.
At least the soundtrack was still good though. Well, okay, the ending song was AWFUL! It sounded like Bjork or something. ::shudder:: Sorry if anyone is a Bjork fan, but when you're expecting something more along the lines of the Enya song from the first movie and you get whatever the heck that was at the end of TTT, it's just bad. I think the Rohan pieces were my favourite though. ^_^ Can't wait to get my soundtrack!!
Anyway, I'm going to watch the movie again today, so I guess I'll see if my opinion changes any after the second viewing. I don't think I'm going to watch it again after today though. It's not good enough that I would want to see it three times in theatres.
Oh, and before I forget, I gotta say, I think Jackson was listening too much to the screaming Orlando Bloom fangirls or something, because there was just way too many "Legolas is cool" scenes in there. Really, it was ridiculous. When you see it, watch out for the horse and skateboarding scenes and you'll get what I mean. Honestly, I'm a huge Legolas fan and I thought it was more absurd than cool. If people want more Legolas, fine, put more of him in, but for goodness sake, let him say or do something useful, don't just throw in gratuitous action scenes, because it just spoils the effect when it ends up making your audience want to gag from the obviousness of it all.
