Suffers from the middle child syndrome of the trilogy but still a must see!!

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2007)

I feel almost bad giving this film any sort of flack after reading other people's reviews because people truly are very passionate about this film. After re-watching Fellowship of The Ring and truly being enchanted by it I anxiously watched The Two Towers and it just didn't quite captivate me the way that Fellowship did. Many trilogies stumble during their second installment because it's almost a necessary drawl between the first and the third...beginning and end and you have to fill in all the important information to join the two. Certainly the climax of The Two Towers is very important and that's the battle of Helm's Deep and that is really what The Two Towers is all about and it just continually builds up to that and it drags while it's getting there. The characters don't give near the same effort to the expanding story and the action is minimal compared to the original. Yes it has the epic Helm's Deep Battle but it's just a different all around feel to it. Much has changed and there is a lot going on but it's almost too much. I mean The Two Towers spans a lot of information from the book (no I have never read them) so it does have big shoes to fill and I respect that but I just didn't get the same epic feel from it.
The entire cast returns for the second and adds some new faces as well, including one of the most infamous movie characters of all time. I won't spend too much time on the original cast because I did that for Fellowship but they all do a good job. However it feels like they've lost a little something with this second installment. Part of this may be because some of the characters change so dramatically. Elijah Wood's Frodo Baggins goes through an intense change as the ring begins to catch hold of him and almost turns him. Wood's performance is a little more subtle than Fellowship but still very good. Also Sir Ian McKellen returns as Gandalf having fallen through the earth and returned as Gandalf the White. This new version is less emotional and a little more rough around the edges and I miss the old Gandalf and it really took something away from the character for me because McKellen was amazing in the original. The addition of one of the most famous movie characters is that of computer generated Gollum based on the expressions of movements of Andy Serkis, a very talented character actor (also contributed his movements to King Kong.) I personally found Gollum annoying and overused to the likes of Jar Jar Binks and felt more the same way about him that Sam did in the film. Bernard Hill is good as the determined and concerned King Theoden, and Miranda Otto is alright as Eowyn, the niece of the King but I have my issues with her storyline. The addition of Treebeard and the Trees of the forest was also a very cool addition and I love their part in the story.
One of the most annoying and frustrating aspects for me in The Two Towers is this strange and completely unnecessary pseudo-romance that is established between Aragorn and Eowyn. They spent so much time making us feel the incredible, life altering love between Aragorn and Arwen in The Fellowship and it only infuriates the movie watcher to see him contemplating love with someone else although he never acts on it. It seems to diminish the power of their romance. For the SMALL minority that do find The Lord Of The Rings films 'boring,' it's almost understandable with The Two Towers. I mean don't get me wrong, it still has it's breath taking moments and the special effects and the direction and cinematography is brilliant but it moves at a much slower pace and takes much longer to fill in all these gaps that are required to get The Fellowship to The Return of The King. So you can't not watch The Two Towers and it is a must see for it's value but it isn't the best in the series by a long shot. 7/10