It tears me in two...

Rating: 8/10 (18 December 2002)

Having just returned from seeing The Two Towers, i find my self torn in two between my love for Tolkiens original work, and wanting to love this interpretation of it.
Because that's what this film is, an interpretation of the book. It made a number of changes which I absolutely hate, but can't help to love visually.

First off, Mr. Jackson, get your priorities in order. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BEND TO THE HOLLYWOOD FORMULA! You don't need to create all these new love stories and stupid cliche triangles between Aragorn, Arwen and Eowyn. These scenes were never in the book, they were only subtexts. Leave them alone.

THE ENTS ARE AN INCREDIBLE CREATION! SHOW THEM OFF!!! The Ents needed much more screen time. When we're first introduced to Treebeard, Merry and Pippin talk to him for about 30 seconds before we're off someplace else. He's a new incredibly unique character! Can we develop his history and culture a little more? PLEASE?? After his introduction, we only cut back to him for periods of a minute or less! How long have Merry and Pippin been on his shoulders? Then suddenly it's the march to war, and we don't even get to see their first charge! Suddenly we cut back from Helms Deep and they're already inside the walls, breaking everything down! No dialogue with Saruman. He should be saying things like, "Saruman! THe Forests are descending on the walls!" "What? Impossible." Etc.
On the battle of Helms Deep. This was i'll have to admit, incredible. However you should have played down Gimli's comic relief just a little bit. We should have seen him with a blood lust in his eyes, hacking away at the armies of the orcs, not being too short, tossed by Aragorn and poking people with the end of his Axe. However the rest of the battle was incredible. Well Done.
On Gollum. Very nice indeed. I was worried about his portrayal, and though a tad bit over the top, his dialogue with himself and the aside to the audience was great. And there were just a couple of shots during the movie where I almost believed he was real. Impressive.
On Sam and Frodo. KISS ALREADY! If you're gonna have them get that close to each other and put all that mushy dialogue in, take it all the way. Frodo, stop overacting. Sam, stop overacting. Your monologues are rediculous. It sounds like you're reciting poetry.
All in all, it's a wonderful, incredible film. The visuals are very much amazing, however there were almost too many grand sweeping shots, to the point where rather than thinking "Oh my god, what incredible mountains!" It was "Oh look, another sweeping shot of more mountains."
However, stick with Tolkien, he knew what he was doing. It's all there in front of you. If you complain that you had to cut stuff from the book for time, don't go adding stuff back in that wasn't in the book.