Excellent, but ...

Rating: 9/10 (26 August 2003)

I gave this movie a rating of 8, only two notches down from the perfect 10 score for "The Fellowship of the Ring." With this film, there's little doubt left that Peter Jackson has surpassed the original "Star Wars" trilogy in terms of passion, excitement, visual originality, and storytelling power. What a great accomplishment is "The Two Towers." It'll be tough waiting another three months for "The Return of the King," which I'm sure will be the best of the three films. (The "LOTR" film cycle has one huge advantage over "Star Wars": Jackson won't be revisiting his original masterwork with any badly written, badly acted, unnecessary prequels.)
"Two Towers" does not follow the middle book in Tolkien's epic trilogy as closely as some might like, and does take a few liberties here and there, but overall this is a fine adaptation and, let's face it, probably the greatest sequel in film history. Jackson once again successfully creates a believable yet fanciful vision of Middle Earth; his special effects, while not quite as seamless as in "FOTR," are nonetheless impressive, and there's great magic in the cinematography, set design and music. The acting is also a level of magnitude above that seen in the last "Star Wars" picture. Each actor is able to make his or her character unique and believable within the terms of the story. This movie probably comes the closest of any to resembling a perfect marriage between art and blockbuster entertainment.
All of that said, "TTT" (as it is popularly known) isn't quite as smoothly paced as "FOTR." The first 15-20 minutes are a bit choppy; we're thrown from one end of the story to the other in a somewhat frantic attempt to bring us up to speed. And, more than "FOTR," the second film feels like it needs footnotes -- in fact, after seeing it in a theater, I went out and read all three books, just so I could have a deeper understanding of this particular film.
So I look forward to the extended DVD release, which I understand contains 40 minutes of additional footage. I think "TTT" will benefit from the restored footage; this is one of the few epics that might actually make greater sense with a more leisurely pace.
"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy is without a doubt the most exciting and important movie franchise of at least the last 20 years. I could give a rip about "Spider-Man" and "Harry Potter" ... what makes Jackson's films special is that they tell a complex, moral story in terms of a magnificent adventure. If the scenes dealing with Shelob in "ROTK" are anywhere near as good as the Balrog/Battle of Helms Deep sequences in the first two, then this beauty is only gonna get better.