A stupendous part II of the LOTR series. Gollum comes in, and is quite brilliant. Frodo has more depth as well as Sam. This has great scenes, and is my #3 favorite movie, though I am debating on lowering it.

Grade: 99.0 , A+

The worst of the trilogy, but still an outstanding film. It suffers from both middle child syndrome (no clear-cut beginning or end) and too many storylines (especially near the end), but it still manages to be an incredible achievement. Gollum is superb, both as a special effect and a character. Andy Serkis truly gave the best performance of the film, though Viggo Mortensen was quite excellent as well in a much bigger role. New characters are given the same layered performances as all of the originals. The battle at Helm's Deep and the March of the Ents are amazing to watch, and, once again, the technical aspects are superb. It's just too bad that Gandalf wasn't in it more.

The weakest installment of the LOTR trilogy, but the one that improves the most upon repeated viewings. It also contains some of my favorite scenes of the trilogy which include...

1. Gandalf appearing to save the day at Helm's Deep.
2. Gandalf 'casting' Sarumon out of Theodyn.
3. Gandalf falling and battling the Balrog.

Hm. I think maybe Gandalf is my favorite character in the series.

I would rate it an A-.

I too agree that it is the weakest of the trilogy, it's still a great one though. As usual the cast is great and the battle sequences are amazing.

- A

The lowest scoring of the 3 LOTR movies for me... and yet it got a 9.8

Loved almost all of it. The only parts I somewhat disliked were the parts where they showed the King's story and like Eowen and stuff... before the fellowship joined them

Like the book, I agree that this was the weakest installment of the films particularly because of the segmented storylines and the choppy pacing! However, the EE version of this more than made up for the theatrical release and I really enjoy it much more now!

Classic Movie...IMO the worst out of the LOTR, but still amazing!

A+

The battle at Helm's Deep is awesome, but there are too many story elements that drag. It is also a problem that we should be emotionally with Frodo and his journey yet the story everyone wants to see is Aragorn's because of the presence by Viggo Mortensen. This is also the only movie where the extended edition is weaker because it drags even more and feels like too many unnecessary stuff has been added. (B+/B)

My least favorite LOTR movie. The battle at Helm's Deep is one of the best battles I've ever seen. Even tough it drags sometimes it's still one hell of a movie. A

The weakest of the trilogy, but that's not saying much. It's still one of my favorite movies ever. The whole series is excellent, and as great as this one was, it doesn't match up to the first part or third part. The battle at Helm's Deep is incredible.

A+

not the best of the trilogy, the battle is amazing! great graphics, and what more can i say is LotR

B

The worst of the trilogy, but still amazing.

A-

I for one like this one the best of the trilogy. This has the most awe-inspiring scenes than all three. I love the cinematography.

A+

Best of the three, *barely* (Oh so barely. Seriously, if Fellowship's pacing wasn't so awkward I'd like it more) edging out Fellowship. The most awesome scenes in the trilogy, and most epic; I find Helm's Deep to be far more epic than The Siege of Gondor and Battle of Pelannor Fields.

A+

Draw dropping production values and solid performances around still make this one the best LOTR film I have seen (I haven't gotten to ROTK). B+

Beats ROTK, i decided a while ago.

First time I saw this I thought it was better then FOTR, but 2nd time I didn't think so. this is my least favorite of the trilogy, but its still a excellent film!
number 7 on my all time list!
A+

The second installment of the classic LOTR Trilogy is excellent (even better than the masterpiece FOTR). Gollum is the most amazing CG character ever in the history of film, the Battle of Helm's Deep is mind-blowingly awesome, and the performances (especially Bernard Hill as Theoden) are all-around excellent. The cinematography is awe-inspiring. This has some of my absolute favorite scenes out of the three movies as well.

A

This movie is growing on me and FAST too! I give it a B +. It rules! LORD OF THE RINGS ROCKS!!!!!

B- Dragged on way too much, seemingly went nowhere, pointless battles (to the story at least) and ended right where it started.

On a possitve note it did have the only complex element in LOTR which was Gollum, and great acting, but its pointless story is what makes it suffer.

easily my favorite of the franchise, absolute classic

A+

{My original review from 2002 -- enjoy!}

A year, less a day has passed since I wrote my FOTR review and I sadly must report that The Two Towers is just more of the same. It is like the "Illustrated Classics" version of this epic tale - unfortunately, it must be told in such (necessarily) broad strokes that it comes off as more of an adaptation of a comic book than an epic book. Again, this is probably the only way to go with movie-izing this story, and I'm sure Peter Jackson does everything he can within the constraints of the medium. Everything except creating believable CGI characters, that is. Treebeard and Gollum are particularily weak links. (BTW, I think Steve Buscemi would have made a terrific Gollum, and would have added a lot to this episode and the next one!) The continuity of the various storylines is also very clunky, sharing with the first episode an unfortunate tendency to overemphasize the role of men over the other races, especially the hobbits. Again, probably necessary in film, as the story of Frodo, Sam, and Gollum is very "inside" their own heads. But, it further contributes to robbing the original story of it's remarkable depth.

Overall, I would have to recommend re-reading the book as a better use of time than seeing entries in this series (and if you somehow weren't drawn in by all the hype in the last two years, and have avoided seeing either film - do yourself a huge favour, and read the books first!).

1 out of 5.

the best of the three in my book as well. no character introductions, no hour long endings. just middle of the story action, best visuals, and ents! A++