Don't believe the hype. A very average film.

Rating: 5/10 (20 December 2002)

First of all I should say that I think that The Fellowship of the Ring is an amazing film and is quite easily one of the best films of the new decade. I also think that Peter Jackson is a great director, so my expectations for The Two Towers were huge. Unfortunately the film failed to deliver in so many ways.
The biggest flaw is the script, which is almost no better than the abysmal episode 2 script. The trilogy has gone from being darkly epic to fun for all the family. For example, the only purpose that Gimli seems to play in the film is to add comic relief. This is okay for a while, but his one liners soon become extremely irritating and only truly funny to the most stupid of film-goers. Aragorn has become very bland, but you can't blame this on Mortenson who does the best he can with the throw away script that he is given. As well as the script a lot of the acting is shockingly bad. Sean Astin yet again proves himself to be painful to the eyes and ears. Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan are both awful (what idiot cast these films?). Even Ian Mckellen is average. Christopher Lee could've been good, but Jackson decides to only give him about three lines. Bernard Hill is far to young to play Theoden (again, casting issues!).
As for the special effects, it would seem that Jackson has taken a leaf out of Lucas's book and gone cgi crazy. The beauty of Fellowship was that cgi was kept to a minimum, but at times The Two Towers is a horrible computer generated mess. Why computer generate the forest of Fangorn? I'm sure there must be at least one forest in New Zealand to fit the bill. But, the ents destroying Isengard really took the biscuit for badness. The whole scene just looks cheap and nasty. As for the battle of Helm's deep, the special effects look really good, but the whole scene is ruined by awful script, dreadful pacing, rubbish fighting (did they actually train the actors how to use those swords?) and a lack of continuity.
Fans of the book are saying this film is bad because it strays so far from the original text. Essentially I don't have a problem with changing things if it means the narrative will flow better. But it doesn't. The films pacing is abysmally bad. I realise this is Jacksons 'intepretation' of the books, but it is a very average one at best. What really p***es me off is the way all the critics are patting Jackson on the back and saying that The Two Towers is even better than fellowship. Someone needs to stand up to this guy and tell him that he has done bad things. If Jackson or any of the cast receive oscar nominations I will be absolutely disgusted. I could go on and on with this rant, but I won't bother because my review is only going to become lost among a sea of other reviews claiming The Two Towers is one of the greatest films ever.