Poor in places, but an enjoyable 3 hour diversion

Rating: 7/10 (3 January 2003)

There is something mildly offensive about people in this forum taking issue with `nitpickers'. This attitude is wrong because it takes as its assumption that a work such as The Two Towers is beyond criticism, and how dare anyone find fault with it?
There are two threads to the pro- and anti- TTT arguments: those who compare the film with the book, and those who comment on just the film.

A body of work such as Tolkien's trilogy is bound to have a plethora of devoted defenders, and their opinions on the divergence of the film plot from the books are valid. The issue I have against this argument is that a faithful reproduction of the books onto film would have been tedious: the council of Elrond from the Fellowship of the Ring was over 10,000 words long!; the battle of the Ents on the film of TTT took place in real-time, whereas in the book it happens in retrospect (arguably, like in the conventions of classical Greek drama, adding to the sense of surprise by having minor characters describe something that has happened in the past).

Jackson's treatment of TTT is good, but not brilliant. The other breathless reviews of this film reflect an unquestioning readiness to be seduced by overwhelming spectacle. There are nevertheless some elements for which Jackson deserves praise: the rendering of Gollum into a genuinely pitiable character; the beefing up of Faramir's character and role (the antithesis of which works well in the book, but would have made this episode pointless in the film if he hadn't been seen to be a more aggressive character - probably a Jackson decision to darken Gondor's predicament prior to the climactic conflict in the final film); the warg battle and Aragorn's interlude; the suspiciously Arab-looking human allies of Sauron being both mysterious, mute and menacing; Grima Wormtongue's tears when he sees Saruman's army; and my favourite bit - the representation of Fangorn Forest as something mildly sinister and the genuinely quite sweet looking ents.
The battle of Helm's Deep could have been shortened, though my main gripe is with the absolutely pointless introduction of Haldir and his doomed elf stormtroopers. Jackson's adjustments up to this point can be explained away under the protection of dramatic licence i.e. to speed the plot along, but what was the point of the elves? That they didn't appear at this point in the book is a minor point, what is unforgivable is that in an already over-lengthy battle scene, their introduction served absolutely no dramatic purpose. I would even go so far to say that it spoiled this episode: it pointlessly lightened the mood as the forces of darkness were closing in on the refugees and small force of human soldiers. Maybe Jackson has a thing about bows and arrows.
On paper, the climactic battle of Gondor reads better than Helm's Deep, and I am hoping that the film of the Return of The King will be as thrilling as the literary version.
Overall, TTT is a good film, but the Fellowship was better.