Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Grade: A)

I still had not read the books by the time I saw this movie. I had heard some buzz that this movie strayed quite a bit from the books.

Again all of the various aspects of filmmaking were solid. There were a few instances where the CG effects were a little lacking, but overall the movie was solid.

All of the acting again was very good. The diminishing tension coupled with the growing bond between Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) was interesting to watch. The face off between Gandalf the White (Ian McKellen) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) over control of King Theoden (Bernard Hill) was also interesting. The motivation for Wormtongue's (Brad Dourif) actions implied seemed a bit out of place (his supposed lust for and promise of ownership of Eowyn (Miranda Otto)).

The battle scenes were incredibly long and drawn out. The anticipation of the big battle at Helm's Deep was also long. When I left the theatre I felt that was the biggest problem with the movie.

I read the trilogy between the theatrical release and the DVD release and changed my opinion on a few things.

The aforementioned observations about Helm's Deep were that long in the book...and in the book it created an intense amout of tension. The things that seemed out of place such as the attack by the wolves and Wormtongue's motivation were not in the book.

The confrontation between Gandalf and Saruman was much more tolerable knowing the background in the book...though that slowed the book down.

The most disappointing thing to me after reading the book was finding out that Faramir (David Wenham) was (a) not tempted by the ring at all in the book, (b) had a very lengthy and important dialogue with Frodo (Elijah Wood) that helped him, Frodo and the story immensely, (c) was highly intelligent and had incredible deductive reasoning skills that was a thrill to read.

The highlight of the movie (beyond the quality) was Gollum (Andy Serkis). Gollum was everything that Jar-Jar Binks can never be: entertaining, intriguing and a delight to have on the screen.

Grade: A