Good movie, but the weakest of the three

Rating: 8/10 (13 May 2005)

The Two Towers is a good movie, but out of the three LotR movies it is by far the weakest.Peter Jackson's terrible choice in casting Elijah Wood as Frodo (a truly terrible choice that you would realize if you have read the books, given Wood's weak acting ability) is overlooked due to the mesmerizing performance of Andy Sirkis as Gollum, and Sean Astin's increasingly strong performance as Sam Gamgee.
Other weak points include the Battle of Helm's Deep, which is completely changed for the simplistic cinema-goer having only a dozen remaining men ride out on horses (absolutely done for Hollywood's sake)as well as being poorly designed strategically. Then there is Peter Jackson's choice to make Faramir tempted by the ring, which completely changes the character from the book. As well, having to have Treebeard actually see the cut down trees to make him go to war (I can only suppose that having it this way instead of all the Ents deciding to go to war at their meeting, as done in the book, was done to accurately reflect the views of many people today: don't go to war unless it's right in your face, don't do anything to prevent loss unless it affects you). Then making Rohan look pathetic and having 2000 elves show up to help out was a little weak.
Overall though, this movie is strong, and anchored by Gollum. Good but not great, though I would still place it above most movies these days.