Worthy Follow Up to the Fellowship

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2002)

*SPOILERS* Ahead ,
The Movie has the same build up in the beginning as The Fellowship , First Blackness , then The Lord Of The Rings Title , a great battle scene between gandalf and the Balrog , and then fading to the hobbits on their way to Mordor , with The Two Towers Title , very promising continuity . . .
Some parts of the movie have been cut down too far (the voyage over the Dead Marshes) , and on the other hand the move of the People from Edoras to Helm's Deep is bit too extensive (Fight with the Giant wolves was not needed. . .) Also the change of Frodo's behavior is not gradually but very jumpy.
Some twists that are not in the book , like Aragorn falling from the Cliff and getting rescued by his Horse ?
Gollum is done very well , at some times when he is alone in the picture he looks VERY real , which is the best compliment I can give , best CGI I have seen until now , also some good facial expressions . Gollum's split personality was "explained" (by conversations with himself) a bit too extensive too I think .
Some other things that where never so apparent in the book where visually very good, like when Frodo & Sam cover themselves with the Elven Robe , and from the outside it looks like a giant Rock , because they are in a rock area (like a camelion).
Some other things that are assumed for the viewer to know , like the Lembas Bread, the Elven Rope , the Elven Brooche that Pippin drops where things you never saw them receive in the fellowship , but they speak of them so you understand that they where given . . .
The Ents . I accepted the Ents from the beginning , they are very well done , the CGI is brilliant like Gollum's .The War between the Ents and IsenGard is good , but a part I would like to have put in the film is not there (the Ents breaking the surrounding walls by growing their roots into the walls would have been great . . .
Finally the battle of Helms Deep , Great , but too short when Eomer Arrives , when they ride down the mountain to clash into the Orc Host , is just too HUGE to describe , it is breath-taking . But then they jump to the Ent war which is not as impressive as Helm's , and when they finally return they are already crying VICTORY at the Horn burg . . . should have been a few minutes longer (5 maybe ,after Eomer & Ganalf arrive) . The final scenes (quite a bit before the ending in the book) between Sam , Frodo & Gollum are sudden , specially because I expected the ending a bit further .
After all this comment I still rate the movie 10/10 , all the minor issues cannot weigh up to the greatness of the Trilogy . Great work all the way , a little less EPIC than FOTR ,but still the best movie since FOTR . . . which on it's own was they best since . . .