Good, but for fans of the books, leaves you with a sour taste

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2002)

-------------------SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN THIS REVIEW!!!!------------
Ok, let me preface my review by saying I overall enjoyed the movie. If I hadn't read the books (many times) I probably would have REALLY enjoyed the movie, but I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much as the first. That sentence is misleading, however. I DID in fact, enjoy The Two Towers, it just left me with a sour taste in my mouth (read below for details)
The Fellowship of the Ring was, in my opinion, one of the best movies I'd ever seen. It didn't remain entirely true to the books, but there were few additions, and a few ommisions that didn't have an overall effect on important characters in the story to come. The biggest problem with The Two Towers, is that, as has been said before, some of the added material is unnecessary, some not necessary but interesting things were left out, and a few important plot changes were made.
To me, there were four big changes that are worth noting, and I'll in the increasing order in which they bothered me.
First, the battle with the wargs (giant hyenas?) was an addition, and a reasonably significant one. For the most part, I would say this was a welcome addition. More than anything else, it was simply exciting, however it could have done without Aragorn going over the cliff.
Second, the elves being included in the battle of helm's deep was neither here nor there for me. It really added nothing to the story, but it didn't take much away from it either.
Third, was King Theoden being possessed by Saruman. This is where the changes start hurting Tolkein's character development, and will ultimately put a damper on the character development for the next installment. As mentioned in an earlier review, Theoden breaks free from Wormtongue on his own, which shows his will. He is also a much stronger king in the books.
Lastly and to its largest detriment is the change in the way Faramir handles the situation with the ring. As we learn later on, Faramir is the highly unfavored son of the leader of Gondor, because he was "weaker" than Boromir. I understand Jackson's justification of making Faramir want to please his father, but that is simply not how Faramir's character is drawn up. He is noble and wise. He intuitively knows what happened to Boromir, and knows he can't make the same mistake. Unfortunately, this happens and moves on until the movie is nearly over, and it left me with a sour taste in my mouth. It just wasn't necessary and will hurt the character development across the films.
For people familiar with the books, there are a lot of other obvious changes from the book, but these are overall less significant. The development of the Ents is obviously lacking in the film, but the overall effect isn't much different. The reason the changes in Fellowship of the Ring were so tolerable was because the end result was still the same as the book. Ultimately, the same thing happens with The Two Towers. It leaves us about 30-50 pages before the end of the novel, but the path we take to get there changes things that will have an impact past the scope of this film on its own.
Now that I've gotten that gripe out of the way, I'll discuss some other things! Gollum (Smeagol) was produced exquisitely. His interaction with Frodo and Sam is very believable, and his facial expressions and humanity (hobbity?) are both impecable.
The battle scenes in general are impressive to say the least, but you won't find anything like the fight sequence in Moria with the cave troll, or the duel between Aragorn and the Uruk-Hai fighter like you did in Fellowship. The battles in The Two Towers are bigger, but somehow less exciting. It's comparaing Apples to Oranges though. What the Two Towers does in its battle sequences it does very, very well. As far as large scale battles go, there isn't much that can rival the execution of the battle at helm's deep.

The opening scene with Gandalf, is a good way to get the audiences pulse going, and the scene showing his return to Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas and the fight on top of the mountain was amazing.
My conclusion is simply that I must see the movie again, knowing what to expect. This way, the changes won't distract me, and I'll be able to concentrate on exactly what's happening in front of me.