Extended Excellence!

Rating: 10/10 (15 November 2003)

I enjoyed the theatrical Two Towers even more than the first - it was darker, more suspenseful, more action-filled, and introduced some of my favorite characters. The extended edition gives viewers even more of the same - more heart, more comedy, more action, more character development, more sorrow, and more of a conclusion. My favorite scene in the extended edition is Faramir's flashback to a time spent with his brother and father. It really shows more insight into this character, making him seem less like Boromir-lite. It also shows more insight into Boromir himself, before he left for Rivendell, and introduced viewers to their father, Denethor, who is important to the third part of the tale. There's a lot more Merry & Pippin, Treebeard, and Gollum. The DVD extras are fantastic, as we've come to expect. Watch "Cameras in Middle Earth," "Tolkien: Origins of Middle-Earth," "From book to Script" and the entire special on Gollum and music and sound in The Two Towers. (With 4 hours of extras, these are what I found to be the best) Really fascinating stuff here. The downside? The wait for "The Return of the king" seems even more unbearable now!