Not as mind-numbing as the first, but still an instant classic.

Rating: 10/10 (4 February 2003)

Yeah, it's great. And yeah, I'll see it countless times on DVD, already several times in theatres. There are so many beautiful and powerful images in this movie that it's ridiculous to reel them all off. All in all it's a masterpiece, second act of a whole that will probably stand as the greatest, most fantastic film epic for many, many years to come. And still I can't help being just a tiny little bit disappointed?! Now, how's that for being ungrateful! Two major issues concerning changes from the original story follow below, plus reflections on the difference between being a movie LOTR "virgin" and having a score of FOTR viewings in your backpack when seeing TTT!
Well, I have to say I am *really* looking forward to finding out what purpose that whole scene with Frodo showing the One Ring to a Black Rider was about. Doesn't the entire plot evolve around the fact that the Fellowship was supposed to go into Mordor *unnoticed*? I'm waiting for a reason for this scene, and a bit nervous about it, at that.
Also, I find the screenplay's approach to the Ent-moot a tad strange: why on earth do the Ents take several days to decide on whether Merry and Pip are who they are, and decide not to fight - and then come storming out of the woods, lined up for battle, immediately after a howl from Treebeard? I guess it was done for dramatic effect, to hold the "non-literary" audience in suspense - but I think it was a rather pointless change from the book, and making no sense in regard to Ent psychology.
Some CGI blunders seem as if they are the result of Peter Jackson's five-week award tour in 2002, haste in the editing forcing some irritating errors; there are many, some obvious - just look under Goofs at this page.
I must admit to sometimes sighing a bit inwardly, silently wishing for the camera not to flip and flap about so much during (the many) battle sequences, so that one could dwell a bit more on all the details of the combatants. I know there's a perfectly good directing reason for it, showing how the havoc really is havoc, so that's just me.
The score: it's great, I play it a lot on my stereo - and it's very much like the first one. Although not as varied, I think. When the three films can be seen in a row it will be very nice with the continuity, I'm sure, but right now it feels too much like the first to get me cheering.
These things being said, there is no doubt that the tiny bit of disappointment mostly comes from enormous expectations. FOTR was an incredible blast: I laughed, I cried, I didn't move for three hours, I went to the theatre NINE times, I became a fanclub charter member, I bought both DVD editions. I mean, you can't have that same new feeling to it when you see TTT, or any other movie - because now you *know* how the orcs look like, how Saruman looks like etc. Of course, everything is still visually magnificent in TTT, I'm just saying - NOTHING can surpass, for me, the very first viewing at the premiere of FOTR in December 2001, because that was witnessing a new film legend.
The Two Towers is a wonderful movie, I love it in spite of the minor flaws I see in it, and it's a definite 10 out of 10 stars from this reviewer.