Better than the reviews are saying

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2002)

I have been reading a lot of online reviews written by creditable publications, and individuals. Generally the concensus seems to be *** out of **** (3 out of 4 stars). I don't agree with this; Two Towers is a continuation of a great epic and deserves **** out of ****. Peter Jackson has become the best visual director in the film industry right now. Many reviews are criticizing the CGI job for Gollum; this is ridiculous. Compare it to the 2 best known CGI characters in recent movies: the disastrous Jar-Jar Binks, and perhaps the even worse Dobby. Furthermore, there are real characters in this movie including: Gollum, Aragorn, Arwen, and Frodo (who for the majority of the film is able to drop the Hobbit go-lucky attidude and present the caricature of a possessed victim). Two Towers has some faults, like the flatness of Gimili's character, and more noticably the absolutely horrid shots of Merry and Pippin in a tree; these things are screaming blue screen. But neither one of these faults warrants a *** ranking. LOTR is like nothing we have seen before, it is a breathtaking epic, and Two Towers does not deserve any of the sophmoric backlash it seems it is receiving.