Great movie, but it has some flaws...

Rating: 3/10 (22 December 2002)

I really did like "The two Towers". However, I can't help wondering how amazing that movie could have been, if Peter Jackson hadn't had the chance to alter it after the huge fuss everyone made about "The Fellowship".
I guess there have been a lot of changes. Gimli for example is joking throughout the whole movie. Even in the most serious moments, he doesn't seem to realize, that his life is in danger. I guess Jackson noticed, that dwarf-jokes work well on the audience - so why not expand that to 'a-joke-a-minute'? But that's not the worst thing about "Two Towers".
I totally loved the first part of the movie. Everything was just great. Gollum was superb, the whole movie was splendid. But then, it started going wrong. Why did Aragorn have to fall off that cliff? Why did Jackson have to include Elrond and Galadriel again? In a really stupid scene, anyway. I didn't mind Aragorn's phantasizing about Arwen though. I think that was nice.
But why in the world did Jackson make Faramir such a bad character? He doesn't take Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath in the book, why should he in the movie? He supports them in the book and is a purely good character. That whole Osgiliath scene was just totally annoying.
The same goes for the Ents. I was afraid that they would look stupid - but they didn't. They looked great. They were just like Tolkien described them in the book. But why did they have to refuse fighting at first after a long period of thinking. And then, when they see Isengard, they decide in two seconds to attack - Treebeard just has to shout and out they all jump. 'Cause they're so fast... Yeah, sure!
The Helm's Deep fighting was good, but what on earth was Haldir doing there? Just included to have another hero dying, I suppose. And the counting thing between Legolas and Gimli is included and then again not really, because it ends just after it began. No caves to discover for Gimli either.
I know of course that you can't include everything in one movie, but there was some 'additional' crap in "The Two Towers" (meaning that it was not in the book) that could have been left out and a lot of original scenes that were left out.
Don't get me wrong: "The two Towers" was a great movie. But it's not as good as "The Fellowship". I wish I could see the original version, before Peter Jackson changed it...