Good movie; incredibly overrated

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2005)

"Lord of the Rings" continues to disappoint. The entire trilogy has never had any real effect on me; when I saw "The Return of the King" in the cinema it was the closest I came to loving the series -- the last hour was really gripping stuff... then the conclusion went overboard and I couldn't wait for it to end.
Before I saw "RotK" I thought "The Two Towers" was going to be my favorite from the series -- it's certainly more entertaining than the first film, even if it doesn't contain as nice scenery and cinematography (it's not as lush).
My concerns in regards to this trilogy (and specifically "The Two Towers") is that it tries too hard to be an epic, creating far too much overblown, dramatic material that fails to equate into poignancy. Case in point: I'm sure the entire trilogy contains about an hour of footage entirely of Frodo and Sam crying in each other's arms. There's a certain point where too much is simply too much and I grew weary of the constant drama-queen syndrome. Put a female's wig on Frodo and he's a transvestite. I mean, seriously. He cries more than Halle Berry at an awards show.
The better parts of "The Two Towers" follow Aragorn's story, but then there's too much exposition: "I ride at dawn to Minis Tirith in search of the mighty plot MacGuffin!" Just do it already! Half the film is wasted because the characters tell us what they're going to do, and then we spend more time watching them do it. Once is enough. Example: "I'm going to kill that monster!" (Aragorn kills the monster.) "I'm going to walk over to that cliff and pretend to jump!" (Aragorn walks over to the cliff and pretends to jump.) Overall I feel this is incredibly overrated because a majority of the voters are those who are duped into buying this as the "epic of our times" when in fact there have been far better so-called "epics" made and more relatable ones, too. I found the human story of "LotR" quite weak and because Peter Jackson spends so much time exaggerating it to such overly-dramatic effect... it leaves a bad aftertaste.
It's worth noting the only people I know who love this film are those who infrequently watch films, and/or are under the age of 13. Just for the record.