The Dwarf... beware the Dwarf...

Rating: 7/10 (19 December 2003)

Picking up where "Fellowship of the Ring" left off, Frodo and Sam continue to trudge towards Mordor - with the annoying CGI monstrosity Gollum leading the way and mixing it up with Faramir (Boromir's brother) while Aragorn, Legalos, Ghimli and the newly resurrected Gandalf try to save the people of Rohan from Saruman's monsters and reunite the alliances of men. Chaos and mayhem ensues.
Sadly, I didn't like this film as much as I hoped I would. It's a good film overall, but marred by the occasional slow pacing and unnecessary camera mugging. In other words: the dwarf, Ghimli. John Rhys-Davies is a great actor and he was good in "Fellowship", but he was terrible here (almost as bad as Rupert Grint in "Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets" though not as bad as Jar Jar Binks). He doesn't even feel like he's playing the same character. Ghimli was a capable adventurer in "Fellowship" but in "Two Towers" he's suddenly become an idiotic clutz who can't ride a horse without falling off or get down a hill without tripping over his stubby feet. And then there was that "Toss me! Don't tell the elf!" bit. Oh god that was horrible; it's as if Aragorn was stalling just to make Ghimli say toss me. Peter Jackson wanted comic relief obviously but this was the best he could come up with? Pretty pathetic. I'd rather have a dull, ugly humorless fantasy epic than one who's only source of comic relief is an idiot dwarf. Oddly enough, John Rhys-Davies fairs better at being the voice of Treebeard of the Ents than he does at being Ghimli.
Then there's Gollum, the most over-rated CGI abomination in the history of special effects. I can't even go in depth with this one...
I did like Miranda Otto as Eowyn though, and of course I prefer Treebeard over Gollum, and I liked Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn and Ian McKellan as Gandalf. The battle of Helm's Deep is spectacular, as is the Ents trashing Saruman's castle. Too bad the dwarf and Gollum had to ruin what should have been a classic.