Great movie in many ways and a worthy follow-up to The Fellowship.

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2003)

(*minor spoilers*)
Peter Jackson has done it again! He has given us a splendid movie, which is moving, funny spectacular, imaginative and epic in scale. He keeps you engrossed in the story for the whole 3 hours and leaves you wanting more when the end-credits roll by.
Even though there are many similarities with the Fellowship when it comes to style, tone and general story elements, The Two Towers is also a very different movie-experience. And still Peter Jackson manages to reach the same quality standard set by its predecessor. Amazing!

A great part of the movie is about the battle at Helm's Deep and it's preparations. Much has been said already about the greatness of the battle scenes. I have to agree with most critics. It's unparalleled! Spectacularly shot and executed. The whole build-up to the battle is tense, emotional, with great pieces of dialogue delivered by Theoden, Aragorn and Legolas.

Another fairly large part shows Frodo's struggles with the ring, his emerging dark side, and the complications that the creature Gollum brings to the drama of his character. Of course it's also about the tragic figure of Gollum himself (a brilliantly created cgi-character), but it's especially interesting to see how Frodo and Gollum mirror each other. Sam is the stable figure in all this and has to make sure Frodo keeps his sanity. It's really wonderful to see the interaction between these three characters.
Then there is a smaller part dedicated to Merry and Pippin's meeting with the Ents (walking and talking trees), and Treebeard in particular. Even though the Ents didn't completely match the image I had of them prior to seeing the movie (I had imagined them as being really huge, like all the other trees in the forest while in the movie they were quite a bit smaller), they were still a joy to watch, and once they were lined up, getting ready for battle, I was totally buying their appearance. The battle of the Ents was one of the standout moments of the movie, I must say. Seeing the vengeance of these ents, hurtling rocks, squashing orks, and flooding Isengard, is really terrific! Still, there are many more enchanting and spectacular moments in the movie. Gandalf's fight with the Balrog, a warg attack (beasts looking like huge hyena's), two trolls opening the black gate, olifaunts (huge elephant-like creatures), I could go on.
The way Peter Jackson tells the separate stories works terrifically. The cutting between the different storylines is refreshing, makes for a good pace of the movie, and keeps you involved with every character. Halfway through, we even get a sequence in which we return to the Aragorn-Arwen love story (through a dream/flashback scene), and see appearances by Elrond and Galadriel. It doesn't distract from the rest. On the contrary: it is a nice and calm intermission in the midst of all the mayhem going on in Middle Earth.
The overall tone of the movie is nicely balanced. Dramatic moments, action-sequences, dashes of humour, romance; Peter Jackson finds the time and place for all of these elements.
The movie isn't flawless though. For example, Gimli is portrayed as a funny dwarf who is clumsy and often can't keep up with the rest. Even though the funny moments work many times and he is still tough and ruthless with his axe, his character is a little too much of a comic relief. It doesn't do justice to his character. (Hopefully, Jackson will compensate this in the Return of the King. Then I can forgive him.) Other moments go a little over the top or get a bit corny. Then there are some scenes, which are not menacing enough (for example the first appearance of the nazgul on the winged creature), or need to be a little more fleshed out.

In the end though, in the light of the whole movie, the weak points turn out to be minor quibbles. The amazing experience that is 'The Two Towers' is definitely no letdown. It is a work of art and can proudly stand next to 'The Fellowship Of the Ring'.