Superior to the first installment!

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2002)

After a year of anticipation, increasingly intense with each day of waiting, each spoiler revealed, and each rave early review read, the second part of LOTR has finally arrived. As a wary filmgoer who seldom wastes money on current cineplex junk, I was naturally concerned whether this colossal undertaking will live up to my expectations, let alone its equally collossal hype.
Perhaps, The Two Towers is an easier book to adapt cinematically, because it is more action-based, and its main events occur during a more condensed time period - weeks as opposed to months or years. On the other hand, it creates greater challenges in terms of intercutting between three separate storylines. Peter Jackson does a near-flawless job facing up to these challenges, and largely succeeds. The flaws are still there, but they are less jarring. The "gloom and doom" yet hopeful spirit of Tolkien's second book is present in spades, and again - painstalking detail is lavished on all visual aspects of Middle Earth.
Now, the usual discussion of strengths and weaknesses - and the latter are definitely fewer this time around.
WARNING - POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! -----------------------------------------------
THE GOOD:
1) My favorite character in the entire book was always Gollum, and Jackson's team along with Andy Serkis absolutely nail him. He is best acted and most complex of all, a feat for a CGI creature. As another reviewer said, "Jar-Jar is not fit to lick Gollum's ass", a view which I wholeheartedly agree with. When Gollum/Serkis remembers his past as Smeagol, the moment alone is worth the price of admission. Personalit(ies) indeed go a long way. Nearly every scene in the book that featured Gollum is reproduced here, with great accuracy, even the "rabbit stew" scene! The final scene of the film is extremely effective, possibly one of the finest.
2) Gimli - yes, he is largely relegated to necessary comic relief, but he is funny, not laughable. His character is actually well realized, because a Dwarf would truly feel like a fish out of water in such foreign surroundings. He also gets to save the day more than a few times. I have a feeling he'll have even more to say and do in the Extended DVD.
3) Merry and Pippin display passion and wit, taking their development further.
4)The movie is historically/geographically minded, and handles various new places and concepts well. The fans even get references to the Bombadil Story omitted from FOTR - the Old Forest and the Barrow-Whigths (Gollum sings their song). All of the landscapes are gorgeous, and 100% Alan Lee.
5) Of course, the epic feel is tremendous and the action spectacular. It is unneeded to even mention. At times it seemed like I was watching something out of the Iliad.
THE NOT-SO-BAD:
1) Arwen and Aragorn came off well, at least non-distracting. The sequence of Arwen mourning and wandering the woods alone was starltingly beautiful.
2) Faramir I never cared much about, so his motivation changes did not bother me. The actor playing him was not very strong however, and didn't impress me. Good thing he had little screen time.
3) Treebeard was decent, not quite as I would have liked but in the context of the film, the ents worked. I know that they will get additional scenes in the DVD from Jackson's interview. Their scenes appeared choppy. The Destruction of Isengard, though, was magnificent - goosebump-worthy.
4) The music was still excessive, but better. The Rohan theme was more pleasing to the ear than any pseudo-Titanic pap.
THE NOT-SO-GOOD:
1) The Rohan "women and children" storyline. Used purely for dramatic purposes, cheesy and worn-out. Could have done without it.
2) Sam's long speech about heroic endurance at the end needed some editing. Jackson is not a director known for subtelty.
3) Haldir's real death and Aragorn's fake one were overdone (slow-motion bathos syndrome) , but that is a fairly minor complaint.
4) CGI was spotty in places (the wargs and oliphaunts come to mind), but not enough to ruin the scenes. In fact, none the action scenes falter much.

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In closing, I am pleased that TTT not only lived up to the hype/expectations, but managed to exceed them on almost all accounts. A gleeful smile has hardly left my face in all 3 hours, and my expression changed to an annoyed cringe only once or twice - far less than during Fellowship. I have to say that this film was the one (in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre) that I enjoyed the most ever since the good old days of the original Star Wars Trilogy, and I do not say that lightly.