I didn't like this, but I gotta give him that.

Rating: Null/10 (6 July 2003)

Okay, let me first start of by saying that I am a LotR fan, and have been since junior high. The Lord of the Rings opened my eyes to a whole new world of action, adventure, and lost ideals that was just WAITING to be tapped into. When I first heard rumors in '98 of a live action movie, I could barely believe it. When I actually saw a trailer, I had a heart attack. When the first one came out, I died, but came back to life to see the second one. And now that all of America and most of the world has seen it, what do I think.
Did somebody say "creative liberties?"
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Okay, sure, the movie more or less followed the tale set up in the Fellowship of the Ring, with Frodo and Sam having gone into Morder alone, Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn off tracking orcs to find Merry and Pippin, and Gandalf coming back in Fangorn. What I COULDN'T understand was why everything seemed to go in hyper speed. The entire Helm's Deep sequence seemed exceedingly rushed. It was all BANG, BOOM, SLASH, ORC FALLS, TWANG! HUMAN FALLS, ELVES DIE, GIMLI, ORCS, GANDALF, BOOM, SLASH, SLASH, CHARGE, SCREAM, fin. I couldn't keep up with everything going on. I didn't know if it took two days, or a couple minutes, it was so rushed.
That aside, BY FAR, the most perturbing thing about The Two Towers was this: The elves marched into Helm's Deep. So aback was I taken, that, in a crowded theatre, I was inclined to, and actually did, yell "Did they just rewrite the whole BOOK?!" Though the audience in the theatre did find it amusing, I was genuinly disgusted. I couldn't understand why Jackson let the elves come to Helm's Deep. What prompted such a heinous and deliberate destruction of Tolkien's classic? It may have been for the continuation of the story line, but putting elves at Helm's Deep for continuity makes as much sense as keeping Boromir alive for "character value."
Now those comments were biting, and horrible, but my review isn't ALL bad. Jackson is a very gutsy fellow, taking on something as big as the Lord of the Rings, and I'll be a chicken if he hasn't done well so far. With only a few discrepencies, he's managed to, at least, keep the story and all of the characters intact. That alone is more than can be said for most attempts at any book-movie adaptation. And for what it's worth, the first movie pulled off that new, fresh feeling that can't be conveyed in a book. The story was captivating, the characters 97% accurate (damn you, Arwen!!), and the villains truly villainous. Out of general principal, everyone should go see this movie. How often do we get to see one of the best literary works of our time transposed onto film? Do it. You will not regret it.