[Shadowstrife911]

Note: This is a review of ‘The Two Towers’ as a movie and not its difference between movie/book and how discrepancies screwed it up. (I’m not saying it did or didn’t)<P>I’d say that overall ‘The Two Towers’ was a good movie but it didn’t leave me in awe as the first movie did. For me the major problem was the strange pace in the scenes that the editors laid out for us. Scenes end at odd points without much resolution, they just end quickly and skip to another P.O.V. too hastily. The dialogue also wasn’t very fluent, sometimes they would speak in older English and sometimes they would use Modern English, you could tell when they made up lines even if you didn’t read the book. Character development seemed to be scrapped in order to make way for jokes & more action, which is obviously because this is the theatrical release and they have to please the general audience. I’m sure when they release a special edition DVD with extended footage the editing, strange dialogue and character development issues will be corrected but for now I’m reviewing the theatrical release. <P> Another strange thing I found was Eomer. I can’t remember correctly (and have only seen TTT once) but didn’t Grima imprison Eomer (in this movie) and then suddenly he is running around with an army of 2,000 men? I’m not sure exactly what happened but I saw the movie with some friends of mine (who have never read the book) and they were wondering why the army hadn’t come sooner. The lost Rohirrim army plot hole I expect will be fixed by the extended DVD.<P> Gandalf was also missing for too long and I don’t think this was a good decision when you’re making a movie and a three-part movie at that. When you have a character on-screen for long periods of time in the 1st movie, then missing for most of the time is the second and then expects him to re-appear in the third, you have a major problem. This is a movie and not a book and people have to see things happen.<P>My last main disappointment was the ending, because there wasn’t really one. Basically we see a dozen or so soldiers left at Helms Deep and then they make a final charge, a la “the charge of the light brigade” and then Gandalf & Eomer come and save the day. The climax of the movie occurs so near the end that there is no resolution besides a rather hurried one. Saruman is the main antagonist in this movie and they don’t go back to him in the end. This movie needed the scene where Gandalf confront Saruman. I don’t understand why they took it out completely or move it. You can’t set him up as the main bad guy sending out Orcs & wild men to slaughter the Rohirrim and not even confront him in the ending, that’s not how movies work. Movies must have closure; you can’t end on a total cliffhanger.<P>Anyway these are my complaints, it’s not that big  but I still give the movie an 8 / 10 because it was good but if these things were fixed then it would get a 10 / 10 . For me these things spoiled the mood a bit as they jumped strangely from scene to scene and ended the movie without real resolution.<P> P.S.: If you look closely you’ll see that I’m not complaining about discrepancies with the book because this isn’t a book it’s a movie. I’d say these are all valid points of criticism towards the movie; Questionable editing, Strange combination of dialogue, Lack of character development and a hasty climax that doesn’t end up confronting the primary antagonist.<P> P.P.S.: I just realised that if they made the end a confrontation between Saruman/Gandalf at Orthnac then it would solve two problems; the lack of Ian’s screens time and the absence of closure.