Can't wait for the extended version...

Rating: 9/10 (10 December 2002)

If you liked or loved Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (hereafter: FOTR) you'll most likely be very satisfied with The Two Towers (hereafter: TTT). I was able to catch an advanced screening and I must say that I was quite impressed with the second installment of this trilogy. I must confess that while I've read the books (once in elementary school and again about a year ago), I'm not a devote to the written version. The tone and pacing of TTT is much different than that of FOTR, it's faster, darker, and a bit more confusing. Now by confusing, it's not as if you ever lose track of what's going on, but rather, since it is told by inter-cutting the 3 main story lines it's harder to relate the story lines to one another than I remember it being in the book. It helps keep the momentum of the movie moving along, but I felt as if it hindered the momentum of the individual storylines. Mostlikely a catch-22, so I suppose there's no getting around it.
The movie does not stand alone, if you're going to see it, but haven't seen the 1st one or read the books, do yourself a favor and spend the $4 to rent the movie or $7 to buy the book. Without this prior info you'll struggle to figure out who these people are and/or what their motivations are.
Ok, to the stuff you want to know. The battle at Helms Deep is massive and amazing. Gollum is everything you could hope to get from a CGI character and more, not perfect, but probably as perfect as can be at this point. The Ents, to me at least were a bit disappointing, both in their rendering on screen and how their story was developed. If anything is slighted in the movie it's the development of the Ent characters.
Bottom line, a very good movie, probably in line with FOTR (although having just seen the extended version, which I see as a significant improvement of FOTR, I might be overvaluing it somewhat). TTT will also, no doubt, benefit greatly from an extended treatment. The doom and danger in TTT is palpable and the movie rarely disappoints. I'm sure that repeated viewings will only serve to improve the movie, as it is a lot of visual and informational material to ingest in one sitting. I'd rate it at 8.5 (I'd rate FOTR a 9.0 and FOTR extended version a 9.5 or higher), but again with another viewing or two, I'd probably like the movie even more. Go see it now, er...as soon as you can, despite my soft-selling it, you won't be disappointed! After all, if I can enjoy it sitting in a cramped screening room with a head and chest cold and little sleep, I can only imagine that in a real theater in good health you'll enjoy it that much more. I don't want to add to the hype, but this is a damn nice movie.