A Disappointment

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2002)

Last year, I said that "Fellowship of the Ring" was a "decent adaptation" of the original book. I can't be that generous with "The Two Towers."

I could tell from the trailer that Jackson was planning to beef up the battle at Helm's Deep and the Arwen-Aragorn-Eowyn triangle--and I recognized the cinematic wisdom of both those moves. I hadn't anticipated that the second film would end so much sooner than the second book did; that too, though, I can see the wisdom of.
But Jackson took too many liberties for me to enjoy this film as an adaptation of a minor classic. There's too much new material lifted from pulp fantasy, too many Hollywood cliches: the attack of the wolf-riders, the surprise eleventh-hour arrival of elvish troops, Pippin's strained scheme to rouse Treebeard from his apathy, the detour to Osgiliath, the confrontation between Frodo and the airborne Ringwraith (what was that supposed to show, anyway?).
Viewers who have never read the book will no doubt enjoy the film as an entertaining, action-filled, special effects bonanza--though I must say it does a gross injustice to Tolkein to turn his work into merely that. As for the D&D geeks who camped out in theaters on the night of December 17, they will no doubt forgive Jackson his infidelities because the film has cool monsters and sword fights and elvish dialogue--which has always been the way to that crowd's hearts and wallets. There's no question that the film deserves another round of Oscars for sets and costumes and special effects. But the film is still a disappointment.