Applause they did...

Rating: 10/10 (23 December 2002)

*spoilers, beware*

For my birthday I saw The Two Towers with about ten of my friends.
Never before have I seen such an unbelievable spectacle of cinema
accomplishment. My biggest problem with the whole movie was some of the
shots of the hobbits on the shoulders of Treebeard. That's about it.
Gimli, the stout little dwarf who was pretty much in the shadows last time, is now out in front with his quirky and very funny scenes. There was hardly a scene in which the surly "man" didn't give a laugh. Dead wargs piling on top of him, his complaint of a lack of a view at Helm's Deep, and his unbelievably humorous
shot of him gouging a berserker Uruk-Hai in the crotch with his axe. THAT'S
funny.
I was so pleased with Gollum. He interacted so perfectly with the live actors it was hard to looks at him and remind yourself he wasn't real. The close-ups on his face are what give him such a dimension of a real, physical character. Yes, Dobby and Yoda did look quite good in their respective movies (Harry 2 and
Star Wars 2) but Gollum not only looked better, he performed much better. See the movie to understand what I mean.
Well, I have found two other complaints. Merry and Pippin were virtually
forgotten in this movie. Their scenes were almost as if they were put in only because they had to. Also the overall feel to the movie made it drift away from the first, and sometimes, even though I have read the books and seen the first movie quite a few times, I found myself somewhat lost or puzzled by the movie.
However, this movie was filled with scenes that more than made up for the weak points of the movie. Depending on what kind of movie you prefer, this movie is better than the first. If you like the first one better, that's because these two movies share almost nothing in common, and I understand why some people
liked the first one better.
However, other than the first movie, there is one thing that I have never heard in a movie theater, and I've seen nearly every worthwhile movie since Gladiator. Applause. The theater erupted in applause by the film's end. That is the
testament of the strength of this series, and may The Return of the King prove us all wrong that movie making can't get any better than this. 10/10.