7 out of 10...and mainly for technical achievements.

Rating: 7/10 (1 January 2003)

Perhaps a second viewing will change my mind. But as of now, I was generally disappointed in "The Two Towers".
Not much in the way of character development, too much cross-cutting between scenes which oftentimes left me reeling. The FX were generally brilliant, though Merry and Pippin riding on Treebeard offered some pretty obvious green-screen backgrounds.
I suppose I was left cold the most by the end of the battle at Helms Deep. It just sort of ended...with no real explanation on how it ended...or why, etc.
The "snowboarding" of Legolas down the stairs was a real laugher, and not in a good sense.
I'm mainly p***ed that Andy Serkis as Gollum didn't get any sort of acknowledgement from the Oscar folk. He was absolutley brilliant. Was he left out because he was covered in CGI? Obviously. But is covering him in pixels any different than covering an actor in prosthetics/makeup? John Hurt was nominated for "The Elephant Man" in 1980...and no, he didn't win. But he was just as unrecognisable as Andy Serkis is in "TTT".

As an aside, a brother-in-law and I saw it in it's second week of release. Both of us were left somewhat cold. He gave it an 8 out of 10, and I gave it a 7 out of 10. I gave it a 7 mainly for the sheer scope of the project, the cinematography, the costumes, the FX; all technical achievements. The only acting nod I can really give is again to Andy Serkis.
He saw it again just yesterday, and said it was way way (8 times he said "way") better the second time. And he has read the books until the pages fell out and bought them again. Perhaps I will feel the same when I use my free pass to see the movie again.
And there will be an extended version of all the "Rings" movies on DVD. I'm hopeful that "TTT" extended version will make it a more enjoyable film

The extended version of "Fellowship" was far and above a better film than the theatrical release.