There's gonna be 10,000 of them running around tonight. (Spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (16 August 2004)

The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers succeeds over the theatrical version of 'Fellowship' but to a certain degree.
Now the Fellowship has been split apart, Aragorn, Gimli and Elf Boy are off doing their own thing with Rohan against Saruman. Merry and Pippin are off with the Ents (or talking trees), and Frodo and Sam must entrust their lives to Gollum in order to make it to Mordor.
First thing I must talk of is the downs of this film. While the extended edition fleshes the characters out better, the theatrical film for 'The Two Towers' does not do that as best as possible. Some people, like Faramir are left mostly undeveloped. Don't worry, the extended cut takes care of this problem.
While many people complain about Faramir's decision in the film, I actually kind of like that idea (since Frodo and Sam end up in close to that place anyway). The only problem with this change (or really addition) is that it seems like an idea that wasn't fully developed before filming it.
Only several other things left me a bit mift with the film. One, was the fact that PJ didn't have the scenes in chronological order like I was hoping he would. That, in the end, doesn't matter really, since the inserting of different timeframes adds to the drama here.
I hadn't read the book yet when I saw this movie, but I did know there was a showdown with Saruman at the end. Unfortunately, that has been saved until the Return of the King extended edition. I was also expecting from the film a sort of blueish - gray overtone, especially a rainy battle throughout the Helm's Deep sequence.
While this is definitely the weakest of the trilogy, that is not to say its a bad movie. Its actually very good. Gollum is done with utmost perfection, getting even better in part 3. The acting is solid (though Legolas and Gimli need to stop the annoying puns. This takes away from the drama).
As for the conclusion to the Helm's Deep sequence, simply breathtaking. It's an almost Biblical kind of ending, seeing Gandalf the White ride down with the army against overwhelming odds.
This film is my 5th favorite movie.