Overall movie: ***** (Nominated for Best Picture, 2002 Academy Awards)
EJW content: Just shoulda been more (who's this "Brego," anyway?) -- even so, a must-see movie (Best On-screen Team--with Sean Astin and Andy Serkis--2003 MTV Awards)
This is an epic film with huge battle scenes, lots of action, and a cast of thousands (some of the armies being Massive, and others just massive). It's also a drama told at a very human level. It comes by its dual personality honestly, since it's based on Book 3 and Book 4 of LotR, which Tolkien said didn't belong together (one of the reasons he was unhappy about LotR being published in three volumes). But I think "dual" rather than "split" personality is the correct term, since the two parts don't fight each other but seem to have reached a state of peaceful co-existence.
I'm speaking of it as positively as I am partly on the advice of reviewers who understand epic action movies better than I do, who have consistently called it the best one they've ever seen, as well as on my own judgment of its more dramatic parts. I don't think it's as good as LotR/FotR because I don't think its drama, as a whole, is at the same level as the first movie. This isn't per se because Elijah has so much less screen time, but, you know, the overall quality of the acting has to be considered, and when the best actor has decreased screen time... well, there are consequences. As with LotR/FotR, any complaints I'd have would be about differences between the book and the movie. Since I haven't considered that as a factor when ranking movies based on other books, it wouldn't seem fair to do so for the LotR films.
