Outstanding, with minor gripes

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 2003)

Warning: contains spoilers.
I had made the dire mistake of leafing through the first book prior to seeing the first movie, and was determined not to repeat that mistake again. Your mind becomes so bent on following the story in your head with the aid of what you see, you only notice the alterations and not the movie, causing irritation. There are better ways to spend your money and time.

So with nothing but a general idea of what happened in the second book, I went to 'The Two Towers' and enjoyed it immensely. You are less surprised by the special effects (with the exception of Gollum, who is masterfully rendered) as you've already had a taste from the first movie. Instead I found myself focusing on what I was shown, and boy, did I ever get the impression the situation was next to hopeless! The battle for Helm's Deep is magnificent. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, and just when you think things couldn't have gotten any worse, they do. And again. And yet again. The atmos-fear, beautifully portrayed, is catching. You're kept on a slow boil. Good guys as well as bad guys die. My shirt was plastered to my back at the end, and it has been a long time since any movie has been able to do *that*.
The rendering of Gollum is incredibly lifelike. You instinctively loathe Gollum, but pity Smeagol. You wonder if there is more to Frodo's decision to trust the creature---perhaps because he sees Gollum as what he may himself become one day? The scenes where it becomes all too clear that Gollum is a text-book case of Ring-induced MPD, are chilling. And Frodo definitely isn't a happy Hobbit anymore. Oh dear ...
It comes as a bit of a surprise that the best human character in this movie is Theoden. The old King of Rohan, nearly defeated by Saruman and his sidekick Grima, awakens from his dark slumber, finding himself in dark times he hoped he would never see. Yet he keeps on going, hating what he sees, what he is forced to do, but doing it nonetheles. He has his life, but more importantly his people to lose; Aragorn and the others just their lives. This responsibility weighs heavily, and it is portrayed with skill and devotion.
Some gripes then. I found the ending of the movie to be rather hurried. The battle at Helm's Deep is over in a flash once the cavalry arrives. Treebeard sees the devastation brought onto the forest by Saruman, howls a bit, and within moments the other Ents appear as if by magic and go to battle. The cleansing of Isengard is epic if somewhat short, but absolutely spoilt by the way Saruman is prancing about on his balcony. And if I were Sauron, I'd feed a particular Nazgul to the dogs for just leaving the Ring in the hands of the enemy. These things could have been so easily avoided you cannot help but wonder what was going on during the editing stage. Minor gripes, but considering the rest of the story is woven together so masterfully...
Nevertheless: Go see this movie. Forget there's a book, forget there once has been a man named Tolkien. Just let yourself be immersed into the story as it is shown to you. You won't regret it.