Fellowship was good. Two Towers was not good.

Rating: 4/10 (7 June 2013)

Here are my point by point thoughts on Two Towers.
--Right from the start, this film opens with a sequence more cartoonish than anything in Fellowship. It later provides a shoddy rationalization to bring Gandalf back from the dead. I feel that this trivializes his death in Fellowship, which was one of the more effectively dramatic moments in that film. I guess an apparent death results in one's return as a "whiter" version of oneself. Gandalf struts around like nothing happened. Also, when someone says that they were "sent back" from heaven "until my task is completed", I get the impression that they are borderline invincible. This diminishes any sense of danger in the storyline for this character, and also diminishes the theme of death in the film overall.
--Another problem I have is with Gollum, who is annoying as soon as he appears. I suppose that's a personal gripe, but his mannerisms are rather obnoxious and hammy. He's practically unwatchable. His character is also a substandard attempt at writing a character with fake complexity. Gollum shifts between evil jerk and loyal nutcase. That's about it. One understands the character completely the moment his split personalities present themselves. Unfortunately, this shift in personality is repeatedly hammered into the viewer's brain. Yes, we got it the first time it was shown. Simply shifting between two thin personalities dozens of times does not create character depth or complexity. Also, was there ever a question that his evil jerk personality would ultimately emerge as the dominant one? At no point during these films did I think that he would choose NOT to steal the ring (even for a second), and I didn't even read the books. His inner conflict feels meaningless and superfluous to me.
--The drab visuals make for some tedious viewing. Everything is gray. The environments are gray. The skies are gray. The bad guys are gray. Gollum is gray. The orcs are gray. The weapons are gray. The buildings are gray. The color scheme is way too monotonous and repetitive.
--The stifling effects of the ring were already established by the end of Fellowship. We saw the effects of the ring on a variety of characters, so it's certainly frustrating that Two Towers continues to harp on this subject without further elaboration or complexity. Frodo, Sam, and Gollum basically just walk through gray environments for 3 hours while complaining about the ring's effects. We already spent 3 hours in Fellowship explaining this issue, and Two Towers brings nothing new to the table.
--It's rarely mentioned, but this movie has one-dimensional, boring antagonists. We get very little time with any of them, and none of them are memorable. They're just generic caricatures to be "fought against" as necessary. There are standard bad guys that show up all over the place, like those big cartoon hyenas near the midpoint and the giant army near the end. A few memorable bad guys and some development would have made things a lot more engaging.
--That leads us to the action, which has some uninspired choreography. The flaw of generic bad guys can be partially mitigated when the protagonists break out some awesome maneuvers or strategies. Very little of this appears in this movie. We mostly get basic sword swipes, arrow shots, and riding horses directly into swarms of baddies. You'd think that Helm's Deep would have some traps and attack strategies for whittling the enemy down as they approach the fortress, but such is not the case - thereby wasting an opportunity for some creative attacks. At one point it seemingly points to Aragorn and Gimli having some kind of plan, but Aragorn just throws Gimli into a swarm of hundreds of baddies. To be fair, there are a few good moments to be had near the end (e.g., the bomb, the giant ladders, etc.), but that's not saying much when one realizes that the battle lasts over 30 minutes.
--The CGI is exposed more here than in Fellowship, with some particularly cartoonish moments (like the opening sequence, the big hyenas, etc.).
--What is it, exactly, that the characters accomplish during the first two hours of this movie? Aragorn helps Gandalf cure a king, then he sits around and talks. It's also ironic that Gandalf is brought back from the dead, then given almost nothing to do. He spends much of the film off screen as he rides his horse to find reinforcements, a task that almost any other character could have completed. Meanwhile, the elves sit around and talk, mostly about stuff we already know. The humans sit around and talk, mostly about fighting but there's no discussion regarding battle strategy other than where they want to fight. They also walk around and put on armor. Merry and Pippin talk to a tree that takes forever to form sentences. I tell you, this movie is very difficult to sit through.
--This movie also introduces one of the more unconvincing love triangles in cinematic history. Aragorn, Arwen, and that other chick. Why even bother having romance in this movie at all if you're not going to spend time on it, develop it, or make it important? Aragorn and Arwen have a brief discussion or two, then make-out. That's it. Also, Liv Tyler can't act.
--One point that is related to Galdalf's contrived resurrection is this: there are various fake deaths of characters in this movie. Pippin and Aragorn are given "possible deaths", but the filmmakers (and/or original novelist) obviously don't want to kill off a main character. Of course, they do kill a random elf dude in an unwarranted moment of overdramatism. I'm not sure why I'm supposed to feel sorry for a guy that had a grand total of 30 seconds of screen time before his death.
--Also, the wizardry in this film is not creative. There's not much in terms of spellcasting.