Search: Starring Ian McKellen

The motivation at the centre of Bryan Singer's follow up to his scintilating debut, The Usual Suspects, is not so much dubious as blurred.

So studiously edgy are the performances that one is never quite sure who harbours the darkest pathology.

You see the money on the screen, which is good, but not the love

The film is arguably not very technically sophisticated or stylistically consistent... but these faults are compensated for by actors Owen and Bluteau, who essentially carry the film alone for its second half.

In its early stages, the film stands up pretty well. It’s when it reaches the blackmail stage of the story that it falters.

The quality of this production is seamless, and if there is a criticism you could say it lacks originality, remaining faithful to the novel, which, for purists, is a form of flattery.

Ron Howard directs without flair, but with respect for the source material.

Tellingly, despite all this extra material, the film does not feel slower and does not become boring. If anything, it’s better balanced, with a more fluid sense of momentum.

Exciting, adventurous, and flush with visual and verbal gags

Easily the most imaginative, energetic and engaging children's film to hit cinemas this Christmas.

The pacing is agonisingly ponderous: in the screening I attended two ents got up and left.

More combat means less time for character interaction, and by the third act, Jackson has already shoehorned in more characters than the film can handle.

Benedict Cumberbatch lends this cruel, ancient dragon all the gravitas and otherworldliness that Sean Connery utterly failed to in Dragonheart.

Behind the Annoying Child Protagonist and the knee-deep schmaltz there's a perfectly enjoyable film.

Has its moments of genius.

The Return Of The King is too long and slow. It has about five endings.

This is indeed the war of worlds

A somewhat ponderous retelling.

The plot may be puerile, but the action never stops and the animation, however achieved, is most impressive.

The trouble is that the film takes great effort to counter everything that makes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation stimulating.

Dragging at times and lacking both humour and heart, it rarely intrigues in the way McGoohan's often loopy version sometimes did.

Numerous small changes work together to change the character of the battle.

There is more world building here than in any other part of the trilogy, and the additional material means it’s better balanced with character development.

I'm afraid this can't leap buildings in a single bound, no matter what the hype says.

What's good about director Bryan Singer's approach is that he respects the material and so do the actors. There is not a whiff of parody.

What makes this film so enjoyable is the chemistry that holds its ensemble together.

A lot of the scenes seem stilted, or rushed, and there are very few memorable lines.