Words cannot express the joy I felt...

Rating: 3/10 (10 January 2005)

Words cannot express the joy I felt when this second installment of Lord of the Rings hit the screens. My joy was short-lived, however, as I discovered that this second in the trilogy was as painful as exercising on a push bike with diarrhoea.
The first of the trilogy was an excellent film, even for someone like me who isn't a big fan on there so-called 'fantasy epics'. Did no one mention to Tolkien that he'd just rewritten the Conan Chronicles, with the only difference being that he couldn't even be bothered to make more female characters? Okay, so we know Tolkien must have been gay for that reason. No matter. The film of the first book was spectacular - battle scenes like I'd never seen before, dialogue that was crisp and sharp, and I really felt for the characters.
The Two Towers was just the opposite. The fight scenes were nothing new - in fact, if they had taken out all the fight scenes, there would have been nothing left in the film! I'm very disappointed that they didn't make this film more dialogue-driven rather than effects and battle-driven. Granted that the book has numerous battles, to me this translated badly onto the cellular screen. For me, films must be ADAPTED from books, not merely copied scene-for-scene.
One person commented that this film require a new scale because 10 cannot do it justice. Erm, 10 means perfection; and as far as I'm concerned, no film ever deserves a 10. The Godfather comes close, so does Star Wars (episode 4), and perhaps Casablanca.
Watching the Two Towers gave me the same feeling of disappointment that I felt when I watched Matrix Reloaded - it put me off wanting to watch the final installment. Which is a shame, because the last of the trilogy (both Matrix and LOTR) is much better than the second of the trilogy in both cases.
In terms of 'completeness', I would recommend watching this film only because you need it to bridge the first and third LOTR films. If you want to watch a film purely for its entertainment value, you're better off watching "I, Robot". At least you get to see Will Smith get beaten up many times lol.
The Two Towers scores a generous 3/10 for me, only because you need it to watch the far superior final installment.