Great "Mooovie"! Horrible Adaptation of a Novel.

Rating: Null/10 (21 December 2002)

I would start off by saying I think this is a brilliant work of Cinematography. This is one of the best, and most visually stunning action movies ever made.
Most people childishly fault the inaccuracies in this movie vs the book because it may or may not have changed the detail of certain events, when and how they happen, and by whom. I do not fault the artistic license to do this, especially in such a mammoth story like LOTR. And I will say that the events as described in the book were fairly well told, if not BETTER told in this movie. The Ents sacking Isengaurd was brilliant!

However, the grandeur of LOTR as a novel comes not from the specific events as they happen, but through the relationships of the characters that spur such events. In this way, the film "The Two Towers" barely resembles the novel.
Whether it's the fault of the screen writers, the director, or the actors themselves, none of the characters retain the humanity which made their actions hold meaning. The heroes and villains act seamlessly without intent in the absence of specific details which made them so real in the novel. In this film they become absolute "plot-slaves" and work only to prove that the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. Other relationship details that were fabricated for the film, for example, Elrond contempt of Arwen's (otherwise nonexistent) relationship with Aragorn, very much change the characters' functions in the story. In this case, not only Arwen and Elrond are changed, but in a sense the entire race of elves as envisioned by Tolkien.
The result is a super fast paced, cinematic action film like no other, and, admittedly, an enjoyable one. But it is a far different experience than the one supplied by the original author. If the producers of this film made the bold, and daring step to keep LOTR as a story about 2 tiny hobbits on their way to the end of the earth, caring the destruction of the world, they could have made one of the greatest films of all time. They could have offered the insight of this post World War 2 novel in a time when we ourselves should be paying attention to the kind of impact even the smallest of creatures can make on our world.
Instead they made one of the biggest blockbuster hit the decade. What would you do?