Great movie, great story, faithful? No.

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2002)

The movie was great, a little too much focus on the fantastic scenery that is New Zealand, but if you've got it why not flaunt it.
I've read a few reviews, damning Peter Jackson for the story line, I'll not add to that damning, just a bit of disappointment.
We've got to look at the fact that this is an interpretation of the story, yes Peter and Co have rewritten a bit here and a bit there (obviously these bits vary in a) size, b) sentimental value to the Tolkien fan and c) a major part of the plot or character development).
To digress for a moment, The Two Towers was not the second book in a trilogy until Unwin and Allen decided that the 1300 odd pages was too much for a book at that time for the general reading public, so The Two Towers was a fill in, a way to develop characters and plots, before the climatic ending just as the middle of most books / stories are.
Why did Peter and Co change the story and characters? I don't know. They did, I may not agree with the changes, but for someone that is not a Tolkien fan with their own pre-conceived ideas the story line and movie was fantastic.
*SPOILER WARNING*
For me, the condensed, sun dried Ent's story was very disappointing the shortened Entmoot, lack of Ent brew and of course the trees coming to the aid of Helms Deep. The loss of the on going relationship between Legolas and Gimli and missing of the finality (although they still have the Return Of The King to go) of the counting of who killed more Orcs than the other, was a nice way to lighten an otherwise very dark battle. Faramir's dark side was a bit of a shock, but thinking on it he could be protrayed as a darker, slightly morbid sulking type of personallity. The side trip to Osgiliath really did not add to the story line at all, except maybe to give a reason for Faramir to be in the bad books with his father. I'm still coming to grips with the darker side of Elrond though.
What did I like about it? The start, the panning down the Misty Mountains, past Dimril Dale, suddenly I realised what was going on, it was the battle of Gandalf and the Balrog! The battle of Helms deep was great, the scenery fantastic. And of course how can one forget Gollum! In parts he looked very un-real, but in others he blended into the scenery so well, the argument between Gollum and Smeagol was brilliantly done.
All in all, forgetting my personal dislikes because of the storyline, I still give it a 9/10. For authenticity and faithfullness to the original story and feeling I'd only give it a 5/10. If you are a fan or not I'd recommend you go and watch it, for the fan, forget the story and concentrate on the one written by Peter and Co, its not the epic by Tolkien, but great none the less.
As a final comment, I have noticed that someone said the Hobbit or Silmarillion has not been done yet, with some of the omissions to the Lord of The Rings, Peter may have a little difficulty with the Silmarillion, as parts won't flow together all that well, although I think he'll do a great Hobbit :)