Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) by Rhys — 22 Dec 2002

Most of the "wow" type comments are taken, so instead of harking on about how great a movie this is (and it is a great movie) I'll instead try to answer a few points made below..... 1# The Two Towers is different from the books.

Yes. It is. And thank goodness for that. No movie will ever capture the full scope and history of the books without making one movie per chapter and being as boring as hell. Don't get me wrong, the books are great, but what works for a book will not always work for a movie.

PJ always said that of the three movies, TTT was going to depart the most from the books - but it's all for good reason. He is making a movie, and that means altering things to fit. I loved seeing Arwen as she glimpsed her own future, and what it would cost her.

.. and for her to play a meaningful part in the movie, those who haven't read the books needed to see just what being with Aragorn means for her future. 2# The Two Towers is missing bits! To put any more in a movie already 3hours long would have been folly.

Some of what was left out will be in the extended version, so I'm hanging out for that. But actually most of the "cut" matarial has been moved over to 'Return of the King'. The reason is that the third book is about one third as long as the other two, most of it's pages going to the large appendix at the back.

.. I for one am glad for such forsight, least the Fallowship turn up in movie three with nothing more to do. And yes, "she" will be in the third movie. 3# It's not as good/deep as Fellowship Actually, yes it is.

.. in fact it IS Fellowship. Remember that this is one huge movie and , being the start of the movie, Fellowship got a lot of the the character building. But in TTT we have well established characters and the movie is about what happens to them, not the characters themselves.

Return of the King will, as will as offer the finial part of the story, give us a chance to look at how far our friends have come, and see how they have been changed. It's all rather silly that every section of a movie must contain the same elements all the way through, and TTT is just one part of a much larger 3 hour picture.

My last word will be to say that the best way to watch The Two Towers is to watch it stright after watching the extended version of Fellowship of the Ring.... togeather like they were made, and meant to be.