EE is a big improvement

Rating: 10/10 (19 November 2003)

(spoilers)
The Extended Edition of The Two Towers is a vast improvement over the theatrical version. Watching this movie in the theater I was confused a lot of the time. I wasn't sure what was really going on. Having not read the books, I couldn't fill in the gaps that it left in the story. That has pretty much been cleared up for me now. I understand the motivations of the character of Faramir, and his brother Boromir, much better now that they were given a decent backstory in one scene which was only a few minutes. (Why these scenes can't be left in the theatrical release of an already long movie is beyond me.) Merry and Pippin have some fabulous scenes as well that add so much charm to what had been an action movie. Now it's a whole movie. Almost every character benefitted from little extra tidbits that really make a difference. Things that seemed to be overdone like the refugees, Arwen, the wargs, all the stuff that seemed to drag on just kinda goes by unnoticed now because there is so much more in the movie that frames them so it's not really a problem anymore.
I didn't "like" the theatrical version of this movie. I could appreciate the work that went into it, the scope of it, the acting, costume design, all the technical stuff. But it was missing something. Now it's not. 10/10. You should really see this version. If you can't or don't want to buy it, borrow a friend's.
Let's just hope that in the future, the studios will realize that movie fans want to see good complete movies even if it takes more than 3 1/2 hours to watch them.