Good for Fans Only...and Not Much For Them

Rating: 4/10 (18 November 2005)

This is the film I was worried that "The Two Towers" was going to be. Amazingly long, overdrawn at the drama bank and without a parcel of sense in the pacing department, this film hobbles along on the crutch of great visual effects, and its name brand.
Once again, great actors and actresses trot out to play hackneyed scripting of dull characters. Once again all characters threatening to be worthwhile are completely ignored.
And once again, Harry is dull as a brick.
...A very worn brick shaped like a cricket ball.
...Which has been named Professor of Dullness at Oxford University.
The lack of personal spirit placed into this project by the creators is completely evident. It is a sorry follow up to the promising third installment, and a cheap substitute for lovers of the book.
Harry Potter is, after all, a character who needs much help being interesting on-screen. In the books, we put up with him because his plot-contrived existence does not smart so much. But up on screen, his striving for mediocrity is hard to ignore. My wife put it best when she said that Potter is not a heroic figure, making the best of his opportunities, but a rather motley, self-indulgent bore, whose response to most situations is "oh, crap--I've spilled power all over myself; what should I do with it?" Avoid this film if the nerds in your life will let you.