Why the changes?

Rating: 9/10 (13 March 2003)

The Star Wars Universe is almost dead to me. George Lucas has destroyed that world beyond repair now. Prequels and 'Special Editions' have ruined what was once pure and good. What hope is there now? What do we have to fill the void?
Like a light in the darkness came Peter Jackson's inspiring and ambitious attempt to take the greatest piece of historical fiction of all time, and turn it into a trilogy of movies. Fellowship of the Ring has escalated to one of my favourite movies of all time in the span of a year. As Two Towers approached, many wondered if it was just a fluke, if Jackson had used up all his fairy dust on the first one. Then the movie came, and all fears subsided.
Mostly.
I do love these movies, and Fellowship and Two Towers are both outstanding films. What really got me, though, was that there were some glaring deviances from the books in the second movie. In Fellowship, any changes that took place, or new scenes, could be explained as if they had happened during the course of their journey but hadn't been written in the books. In Two Towers, they made huge detours and character changes. There were several differences that, for some reason, really bothered me. Luckily these aren't the majority.
Without spoiling the movie for anyone, I'll just touch on the changes that bothered me most. What happened to Faramir? Why had his personality and 'quality' changed so much from the books? The changes made in the films put the ring in IMPOSSIBLE peril, from which the hobbits should not have escaped. Maybe it makes for a more exciting sequence, but it doesn't make sense based on previously established facts about the enemy or the ring.
Other things that bothered me: Wouldn't Merry or Pippin have referred to Gandalf by name before he 'remembers' it later? If there are 2000 Rohirrim, why do you only see about 50 when the party first encounters them? What did Treebeard THINK Sauruman was burning over there in Isengard? I won't mention anything else at risk of giving away too much.
The rest of the film more than makes up for these differences. The excellent battle at Helms Deep, the Golden Hall at Edoras, Wormtongue, and the Dead Marshes are all elements that show why this movie belongs next to its excellent predecessor.
This movie is far and away better than most of the fare out there. A worthy addition to an excellent series.