Even better than the book! Jackson triumphs!

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2002)

While I'm a huge fan of the novels (I won't dispute that it's among the best literary works), Tolken DOES possess flaws...flaws that I think Peter Jackson is correcting with the movie trilogy. "The Two Towers" was always my least favorite book, mainly because it all feels like setup to what happens in "Return of the King" and was a little too quiet after "Fellowship." However, Jackson's film not only tops last year's "Fellowship" movie, he also improves on the book!
People fail to realize that if you filmed the books page by page, the movies would be a total mess. The stories are divided up in a way that doesn't pay attention to structure...something three feature-length films hinge on. What if "Fellowship" had just ended when they got out of their boats? Not only do the new scenes add more meat to the characters and story, it also tops the scope of the first movie and gives each running storyline a fullfilling climax.
These films are the perfect adaptations of the novels. Jackson has taken the most difficult and complex translation in film history and made it into a masterpiece of story and beauty that we will probably never see the likes of again.
Also, all the harsh criticisms I see here seem to be made by people who don't have the slightest clue about filmmaking. People like "Grrr from England" are just literary snobs who don't deserve to have an opinion, because their complaints are silly and ungrounded.