Much better than FOTR

Rating: 8/10 (23 September 2003)

Perhaps it's the lessened necessity for basic exposition, perhaps it's Jackson's greater willingness to depart from the precise events depicted by Tolkien, but for whatever reason, THE TWO TOWERS mostly (but not entirely) overcomes the superficiality and rushed feeling that marred its predecessor.
That's not to say there isn't a misstep here and there: in particular, Aragorn's fall and recovery is utterly pointless, and the Ents lose much in the translation to film. And TTT inevitably fails to capture the depth and richness of the world Tolkien created, simply because no film possibly could. But as a movie, this one succeeds very well.
I may actually go see ROTK in the theater now.
8/10
(Addendum: Full series only 6/10. See http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0167260/usercomments-2224 for my {disappointed} comments on the last film and the series as a whole.)