Some of us may know the back story of how Tolkien himself never wanted his books to be made into a film and I have to say that I agree with him, much of the magic of his books were in the finer details and these could never be conveyed well in a film. Here we have a film that's well done in some ways yet in the grand scheme of things it was never needed, the books stand alone and this trilogy of movies are a perhaps selfish project? -that are essentially a compromised vision of the books, this big budget 'action' movie would serve those looking for a feast of CGI effects and action sequences, thankfully there is some subtlety and the interplay between characters is the films saving grace and I appreciate the tasteful selection of dialog used for the most part. One of my big beefs with The Two Towers and the other 2 movies is just how nonthreatening Sauron is in these films, I think this aspect weakens the movies a great deal, even the ring wraiths come across as impotent compared to creatures such as the Urak Hai. Another is the abrupt transitions between scenes, and the movies lose much of the 'glue' that the books had tying everything together. Finally 'some' of the CGI effects don't do justice to the imagination - Sauron's eye, and the faces in the dead marsh seem to suffer like Gladrieal did in the previous movie - a little bit too overly dramatic and washed out - I am only mentioning this as a comparison to the majority of effects in this movies which are actually very well done. Also the costumes are excellent, I especially thought the depictions of the orcs were excellent. Overall I can only give this 5 stars.
