Not from a Tolkien purist

Rating: Null/10 (1 January 2003)

I am not a Tolkien purist and so I found the movie to be very good. Not as good as the "Fellowship" though. The reason is obvious. The "Fellowship" developed the characters and set the story. It introduced us to a new mythology and by doing this it created cinematic awe. The "Two Towers" book mainly describes action. It describes who goes where and who does what. It was expected that a movie describing the events in this book would not be as exciting as the first part. For this reason director Peter Jackson added his own "inventions" into the story and by doing this he made mortal enemies among the J. R. R. Tolkien fans.
I would say Peter Jackson's effort was fair enough. However, what he could have done was to invent a totally new cinematic style for telling the Tolkien story in the big screen. The new cinematic style would help him adapt the book without any alterations. Instead Jackson followed the well known action style of the Star Wars and Braveheart movies. I do not know if the outcome would be better if Peter Jackson had done differently. Perhaps his choices were right on target. Bottom line: Well done. Let's wait for the "Return of the King".