Rating: 
Summary: Not as faithful to the book as I would have hoped
Review: First of all, let me preface this by saying that I loved FOTR. I thought the editing was perfect, especially in the extended version DVD where the story flowed a little bit better. The biggest issue for me was that the movie (the parts that were included) was pretty faithful to the book. I will not get too specific because I don't want to spoil anyone's trip to the theatre but there were, at least, two major points in the movie where I felt incredibly let down by what was done. Faramir, my personal favorite from the books, was diminished somewhat by his actions upon meeting Frodo (completely different from the book for no reason that I can see). I will also only say that the people of Rohan, upon leaving Edoras, go to the wrong place. These are only a couple of the things that were changed from the book. Now, if changes are necessary to move the story along I can understand that...but these changes did not seem to be at all necessary and that bothered me. But, if you're someone who is really into FX you'll definitely want to see this film. The battle for Helm's Deep is pretty incredible, Gollum is incredible (the interaction between Gollum, Samwise, and Frodo is great), the Ents are just about how I imagined them when I was reading the books. The New Zealand scenery is stunning. Basically, I'm only giving this 3 stars because of how far it strays from the original story...it pretty much ends up in the same place but takes a different (unfortunately, in my opinion) route in getting there.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, intense, and memorable.
Review: Of all the beautiful movies ever made, The Two Towers is among the most beautiful. Scenery in New Zealand. Good acting. Good special effects. What more could a movie goer ask for? Once more, the members of the Fellowship struggle to defend against the followers of Saruman and Sauron, this time in open warfare. Merry and Pippin, having been captured by Saruman's creatures, find themselves in Fangorn Forest, the oldest and darkest of forests. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli follow those who hold the Hobbits prisoner, risking their lives in Rohan, where evil things are afoot. In Edoras, the capital, Grima Wormtongue has the ear of King Theoden, whose only son, Theodred, has been killed in battle with the forces of Saruman. Eomer, nephew of the king, and his sister, Eowyn, try to regain the king to his kingdom, but can they overcome the influence of Wormtongue? Not without the help of a wizard. Which makes one wonder, what happened to Gandalf when he fell from the bridge in Moria? As Saruman's army approaches, King Theoden leads his people into Helms Deep which has never been taken by an enemy force. But never has there been a force like the 10,000 Uruk-hai they must now face. The third group of the Fellowship, Frodo and Sam, find themselves in a rocky area that is so confusing they are walking in circles. After some time, Frodo realizes they are not alone, that something follows. He and Sam stay awake one night and capture the creature, for it is none other than Gollum, from whom Bilbo Baggins took the ring of power. Frodo feels sorry for the creature, knowing Gollum has become a slave to the ring, a fate which he fears for himself. Sam, however, does not trust Gollum, calling him names and mistreating him. As Frodo has been kind, Gollum agrees to lead the two into Mordor. But he is a creature at war with himself and desiring to regain the ring more than anything. In Fangorn, Merry and Pippin encounter the Ents, oldest living creatures in Middle Earth. Treebeard, the oldest and leader of his kind, takes them into his care, convenes a meeting with other Ents to decide whether they should join the war against Saruman and Sauron. But their concern is for the forests of the land, they are tree herders, and trees are what Saruman has been using to fire the furnaces of Isengard. Three major battles take place in The Two Towers: Helms Deep, Rohirrim against Uruk-hai; Osgiliath, capital of Gondor; and Isengard, Saruman's tower. The action is intense. The movie well worth seeing. However, the one caveat: If you are a purist, expecting this film to be as true to the original story as the first was, you will come away somewhat disappointed. Why more liberty was taken with the plot, one can only guess. But the characters are true (with one possible exception), the struggle of good against evil is fierce, and the words of Tolkien ring out. This is a movie worth seeing, and we can hope for the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific presentation, poor screenplay
Review: Visually this movie is a masterpiece. The sets, the towns, landscapes, the creatures.. everything is right out of middle earth. In this area, the film truly shines and those working on this film are to be commended for it. I found the screenplay to leave a lot to be desired, however. Someone should tell the writers that they don't need to have a climactic moment every 10 minutes. This really killed the momentum of the movie. I was also a little disappointed at how they turned Gimli into comic relief. Watching this film was certainly a pleasure, but I can't say that I'd do it again anytime in the near future.
Rating: 
Summary: Lack of editing
Review: I would have given this movie 5 stars IF this movie hadn't been soooo long. I've seen movies that were lengthy because the character development and plot warranted the length. I felt like there was just too much time spent on the battle scenes and the talking trees! The visual effects were stunning and the scenery was breathtaking. I just didn't see why this movie couldn't have been edited more efficiently so as to make it more enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking!
Review: I remembered well from my initial attempts at reading the "Lord of the Rings" at age 10 that "The Two Towers" was where I gave up, and hoped that Peter Jackson could work his magic at converting arguably the slowest of the Tolkien books into an epic movie. Where Jackson did a stunning job in bringing the Shire and then the individuals of the Fellowship to life in the previous movie, here I thought he had a more colossal task in front of him. "Towers" lacked the whimsy of the Bag End sequences in "Fellowship", replacing the fun Hobbits with stilted dialogue between anonymous human soldiers. I shouldn't have worried, of course. There are three areas in which "The Two Towers" excels as a storytelling achievement. The Story: Jackson and three other scriptwriters depart from their "Fellowship" path by taking real liberties with the Tolkien novel. The book that's come to be known as "Towers" -- really the middle two "books" of "Lord of the Rings" -- suffers in that Frodo, Sam and the Ring do not appear until the second half. The movie amends that by redividing its structure equally between Frodo/Sam, Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli, and Merry/Pippin, the three surviving branches of the Fellowship. Considerable more time is spent, of course, on the epic battle at Helm's Deep, in which Aragorn proves his nascent leadership skills to the evolving race of Man. Frodo for his part takes an unexpected detour amonst men, as the character of Faramir (whose brother perished in the last film) becomes far more obsessed by the lure of the Rings than he did in the book. Jackson takes us through the bombardment of Osgiliath -- only alluded to in the book -- and thus allows Sam Gamgee's heroism to be proven at a critical moment. This is important because of what the "Two Towers" movie doesn't include: a substantial slice of the action from the novel. You won't get to see the Palantir hurled from the ruins of Saruman's tower, and, most importantly, Frodo, Sam and Gollum do not cross over into Mordor. Jackson & co. deferred a lot of the plot of "Towers" for the final movie, but they've expanded what's left into a seamless, structurally intact, movie of its own. Helm's Deep: The previous gold standard in movie battle sequences was "Barry Lyndon". A line of soldiers in period costume marching shoulder to shoulder along the length of 70mm film, to the fife and drum strains of "The British Grenadiers", is going to be hard to top. Jackson, rather than hire 10,000 extras wearing grotesque latex masks, used sophisticated software to simulate large chunks of the battle, while the most important moments are achieved by close-up shots of actors and stuntmen (a far more satisfying balance than achieved in the almost entirely-digital fights of "Spider-Man"). The battle at Helm's Deep runs about an hour and sustains interest throughout. The tone of the battle progresses from fearful to dim to triumphan, as a long-missing character rides in to save the day with second digital army. The Digital Spectacle: Let's face it, computerized graphic imaging (CGI) can seem a tremendous step backwards in special effects at times. The Jar Jar Binks presence in the first "Star Wars" prequel was about as convincingly integrated into the film as were the cartoon characters in 1947's "Song of the South". Spider-Man's recent efforts flight resembled nothing so much as Mighty Mouse. Here, Jackson has taken a tremendous leap forward by turning Gollum into a Ray Harryhausen effect: Gollum appears on screen all spidery, herky-jerky, more like the stop-motion Beast from 20,000 Fathoms than how you might expect a thousand year-old hobbit to actually move. Which isn't bad -- this proves that the concept of "digital actors" is getting easier to realize, month by month. And the Gollum design is absolutely grotesque and far more imaginative than could have been attained by a man in a rubber mask. The real triumph of the film is Treebeard. A bizarre plot point in "Lord of the Rings" is here wonderfully rendered in terrific CGI. The plot point (just a chapter or two in the book) is dragged out across the whole of the film's three hours, as the Ents slowly uproot themselves into action, but the script alters the structure of the Ents sequence and thus allows for a more visually compelling conclusion. The lesson of "Two Towers" is that less is not always more. Jackson shows what Tolkien only alludes to on the printed page, and restructures the script so that a three-hour movie seems as effortless and fun to watch as something half the length. This will be a film to see at least twice in the theater, and repeatedly on DVD late next year.
Rating:
Summary: Doing too much with too little time.
Review: Too many dream sequences. Too many flashbacks. Not enough action or character development. The real problem is that there are too many new characters introduced, not allowing for the further use of what we already know about the 'ring-bearer' or his friends--making it difficult to sit through nearly three hours of waiting for something awesome to happen. What could have been an awesome battle sequence fails as it is noticeably computer-generated and lasts thirty seconds before going to a new sequence. Plus, I saw a better version of this earlier in the year--when it was called ATTACK OF THE CLONES. Trying too hard to cram these stories into three hours or less when they would be better off as mini-series on cable television. The only character we learn anything about, a creature whose intentions are uncertain. Is he really helping, or is he simply after 'our precious'? This film gets credit just because it seemingly wraps up part of the story...though I doubt the sincerity of it.
Rating:
Summary: Even Better Than Fellowship!
Review: Wow! I'm tempted to say that The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is the BEST film I've ever seen. I won't go that far just yet. I'll have to see if it stands the test of time like my other fave flicks; For now, I'll just say that Two Towers is the best film of the year. The Two Towers hits the ground running; There's no recap of The Fellowship, and the audience is instantly thrown into the thick of things, starting with Gandalf's struggle against The Balrog. We follow Frodo and Sam on their trek to Mount Doom, Aragorn, Legolas, & Gimli as they track the Uruk-Hai that have abducted Merry and Pippin, and get our first glimpses of Gollum and Treebeard. The acting and effects are first-rate, especially Gollum, a computer-animated character voiced/portrayed by Andy Serkis. He's cute in an ugly kinda way, and the effects combine with Serkis' amazing performance to generate a sympathy for the character that none of the animated Tolkien tales ever managed to do. I don't know if Serkis is eligible for an Oscar, but he should be. The scene where Gollum argues with himself is heart-rending. The Two Towers also contains the biggest battle scenes I've ever seen in a movie- There were times when the audience would just collectively gasp at the sheer size of the armies. Amazing stuff! We've all seen effects-driven films before though; What sets The Lord of the Rings apart are the characters. You truly grow to care about them over the course of the films, something I can't really say about too many other Fantasy/Sci-Fi films lately (Phantom Menace & Attack of the Clones...). Ok, so that's what's good. What's bad is the Year-long wait until The Return of the King! I don't know about you, but it's not often I sit through a three-hour long film and start feeling sad when I know it's about to end! I just wanted it to keep going! Director Peter Jackson has done yet another wonderful job, and I can't wait to get the DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad -- an escape to Middle Earth
Review: My review might have to be taken with a grain of salt, since I'm not a Tolkein fan, the only book I've read is The Hobbit, and I didn't even see the last movie. Even for someone in my position though this movie is kind of fun. It starts off with a bang, the movie goes straight into the action, and we follow several threads of adventurers all seeking the same ends, to save Middle Earth, the world of men, and destroy the ring Frodo wears about his neck. The movie is three quarters special effects, but they're nicely done, it's a little like watching a Disney movie with human actors. The epic itself is rousing. The bad guys, the orcs are truly disgusting. The ents, walking and talking trees, are rather slow and frustrating, but they're supposed to be that way. And they are engaging. The loves of Aragorn, elf and human, add a little romance to the story. And the climactic battle scenes are amusing as long as you don't think about them too much. The best character, however, is Gollum (aka Smiegel?) a washed out villain with a conscience who must debate his every move with himself. Apparently he's entirely computer graphics, but he steals the show. He's a kind of anti-Yoda.
Rating:
Summary: A Different and Darker Quest
Review: As every one knows the Two Towers starts where The Fellowship of the Ring left off. What you may not know if you have not seen it yet is that it is a darker film than the first. Hope seems to be ebbing away from our heroes. It is much like Empire Strikes Back in that regard. But like the great George Lucas says "You can't have a happy and exuberant second act. In the first act you introduce the characters and in the second act you put the characters into the worst possible situation they could ever be in..." Frodo and Samwise appear to have the hardest time in the second film. The ring's powers are slowly taking over Frodo who is as helpless to stop it as he is to abandon his quest. He is starting to change into a different hobbit all together. In a twist of irony the duo must trust Gollum to lead them deeper into Mordor. I must say that I enjoyed watching Gollum. In the books Gollum was a completely evil character with his own designs on the "Precious". But Peter Jackson actually brought some humanity into the character. You begin to see in Frodo a little of Gollum as the quest marches on. But, you can also see a little of Frodo in Gollum as well. It is a striking reminder that we all have these elements in us and that it is our choices that define our lives and who and what we become. Frodo started out as our hero but it is starting to appear that Sam will be the true hero before the quest is over. The entire cast gives a brilliant performance and once again the cinematography is truly stunning. Definitely not to be missed!!
Rating:
Summary: I loved it (and I've SEEN it)
Review: I wanted to be one of the first people to give this flick a rave after having seen it. "Towers" is not faultless - even next to "Fellowship", but it's still a great flick, very much the "Empire Strikes Back" of the trilogy. The film opens with Gandalf's climactic battle against the Balrog in the depths of the Dwarves's kingdom of Moria, setting us up for the return of the wizard who we all thought lost. The over-all story concerns the efforts of a group of rabbit-like people called Hobbits to destroy the "One Ring" of power sought by the evil Sauron. Should Sauron reclaim it, he will become powerful enough to return the world to shadow. The only way to destroy the ring is to toss it into the fiery chasm of "Mount Doom", a seething volcano in the dark land of Mordor - itself Sauron's home (the ring is otherwise indestructible). The first film had the Hobbit Frodo and his friends form a "fellowship" with Gimli (a bellicose dwarf), Legolas (an elvish archer whose quiver never empties of arrows and whose aim is always true), Boromir (a human and thus more prone than most to the ring) Aragorn (played by Viggo Mortensen; Aragorn is also human but seems immune from the temptations of the ring out of duty - his great ancestor was seduced by its power and Aragorn's doubts keep him honest) and the sage wizard Gandalf (Ian Kckellen buried under piles of hair and speaking in a delicious accent that seems similarly weighted). The band must contend, not only with the forces of Mordor, but also those of Isengard - a human realm led by the once wise now corrupt Saruman the White. With nothing but hope to stand in the way of Mordor (in "Middle Earth", magic is common while "hope" is considered the stuff of fantasy) Saruman throws his lot in with Sauron - his fortress in Isengarde and Sauron's looming citadel at Barad-Dur being the two towers of the title. If the Rings trilogy is meant as a metaphor for pre-WWII Europe, Mordor would be Nazi Germany while Saruman would approximate Marshal Petain and Il-Duce, the Quislings, Fifth Columnists and collaborators of every stripe; scenes of Saruman addressing huge columns of Orc troops look reminiscent of the Nazi rallies of 1938. "Fellowship" ended with the band fracturing. The Hobbits Merry and Pippin (the first movie's comic relief) are captured by orcs. Frodo and Sam, eager to prevent any more of their friends from suffering, proceed onto Mordor alone. The remaining band swear to rescue the Hobbits. Gollum, a wretched hobbit-like creature who bore the ring for 500 years (the ring gave him long life, but time has not been kind to his body or soul) appeared briefly in the first movie, but now comes face-to-face with our heroes. Sam would as soon be rid of Gollum, but Frodo pities him - both because of Gandalf's wise words in the first movie, but more practically because Gollum will prove useful for navigating the dark lands of Mordor. Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas are side-tracked in their search for Merry and Pippin when they miraculously reunite with Gandalf and go to join to the defense of Rohan - a human kingdom facing massacre from Saruman's army. Rohan's king leads his people to a mountain redoubt called "Helm's Deep" - carved out of the mountains, it's apparently impregnable, the only defense they have against Saruman's orcs. Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin meet up with the enchanted inhabitants of a living forest - CGI trees who learn to their horror that Saruman has uprooted the forests of Isengarde to feed the fires that forged his army. So, is it great? Yeah - it suffers in comparison to the first movie, though that's because "Fellowship" was able to focus on that one group rather than dividing itself among several as "Towers" requires. The new flick fits seamlessly with the first, though making it harder to follow for non-fanatics who didn't catch "Fellowship" (which began with a monolog by the Elvish Queen Galadriel that synopsizes the ring lore, and then reinforces it through the perspectives of the elvish King Elrond and the nagging doubts of Aragorn; the new film doesn't deal with the legend at all, keeping its business to the story at hand - the ring itself becomes less an object than an idea or metaphor, a "mcguffin" like that suitcase in "Pulp Fiction"). If the story is harder to follow, it stays true to the first film's focus on the trials and loyalty of its characters. If the flick gets more jokes at the expense of the dwarf Gimli, it also reminds you that he's the guy you want fighting on your side when the Orcs strike your neighborhood - something you'd never say about Jar-Jar. Aragorn is less remote than he was in the first flick - though Gandalf becomes more aloof, the result of his life-altering battle with the Balrog. The change implies that he's less of the approachable character in "Fellowship" - and only highlights the cursory treatment of that epic deathmatch. "Towers" draws strength from two sources - the epic battle for Helm's Deep and the tortured character of Gollum. Though both dependent on cutting-edge CGI, the flick works wonders with each: the battle is fought by hordes yet not the faceless hordes of "Attack of the Clones"; Gollum is a CGI wonder, tortured not only by his endless wasted life, but by conflicting emotions brought to life in one scene that unintentionally reminds of Ren from "Ren and Stimpy", but shows the very convincing depths of his dark soul. At over three hours long, this movie doesn't waste a minute.
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