Two people beat me to this. I saw an early matinee so this wouldn't happen. You all stink.

Anyway, I loved the movie. Loved it. However, as much as I am resisting comparisons with Fellowship (because all three should really be judged as a unified whole), I think Fellowship had a little spark of something that Two Towers is missing. I can't figure out what. It ups the ante on visuals, and Gollum is an utter delight. Maybe it's just that Jackson's vision of LotR is not new to me this time out, but I think the problems I have are more story-related (and not to do with the source material either). But my problems are nitpicks nonetheless, so much so that I doubt I'll mention most of them in my formal review of the film on At-A-Glance.

I'm going to hit my impressions of several different things. I'm assuming readers know the story, but I'll keep spoilers (both those related to the story and to its adaptation for the screen) minor.

Gollum: Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I'd go so far as to say flawless. I don't think it's possible to portray the character -- a frankly complex one -- better on film. The book emphasized the mutual distrust between Sam and Gollum a little better, but that's about all I can say. Gollum's conflicted, rambling monologues are just amazing in the "acting" and staging. Never a wrong note.

Arwen: Twice, LotR fans dreaded Arwen's expanded role in the movies. For the second time, there is nothing to worry about. Her involvement in Two Towers is exactly right.

Eowyn: What screen time she has is also exactly right. There's a pregnant pause of sorts in a moment when Eowyn is glad to see Aragorn's safe return: much is said without words. Nice.

Faramir: My biggest problem. Faramir was fine in his early scenes. I particularly liked the scene at the pool (although it irked me that he called this thing in the middle of the wilderness "The Forbidden Pool" without any mention of *why*). But once he finds out about the ring, the handling of the character is all wrong. Faramir's place in the story is as a counterpoint to Boromir. That counterpoint is missing and meaningless as his character is filmed. Worse still, his sudden change of heart has no discernible source. I guess the sum of my problem with Faramir is that I could never get inside his head.

Wormtongue: Rocking. His slightly expanded role works beautifully.

Theoden: His restoration rocked. Otherwise he's sort of neutral on the coolness scale (as in the book) until the thick of Helm's Deep, when he starts spouting dramatically-charged dialogue for...whom? With THAT army of orcs out there, there is no need for purple dialogue to punch up the drama. Actually I probably don't have so much of a problem with Theoden as I do with the general tenor of the debates amongst the characters at Helm's Deep, which seems to consist mostly of arguing about whether or not the cause is hopeless.

The Ents: The Ents are responsible for one of the best and one of the worst things about the movie. The good thing is the sacking of Isengard: WHOA. Most visually impressive scene in the trilogy so far. But the nature and world of the Ents just does not come across in the movie at all. The movie drops token references to the inexhaustible patience of the Ents, their aversion to "hastiness" and so forth, and that's *almost* worse than not trying, because the aspects of their personalities and world that are depicted come off all wrong. The Ents are among my favorite of Tolkien's creations. Trees or not, they are, ironically, most...well, *human* characters, and *so* endearing for it. But in the movie, they are simply colorful and otherwise relegated to plot service. On the other hand, there is something to be said for a movie that has a walking, talking tree in it and doesn't completely throw out all suspension of disbelief.

Legolas: He didn't walk on snow in Fellowship, but here he mounts a horse in a way most becoming of a Tolkien elf.

Gimli: The script walks close to the edge in making Gimli responsible for so much comic relief. But the vast majority of it works. Just two moments are unsuccessful: a gag with chain mail is neutral. And prolonging an initially hilarious height gag on the walls of Helm's Deep ends up breaking tension.

Wargs and Oliphaunts: Those things *rock*.

Grishny: You don't know him by name, but Grishnakh's brief role is quite memorable.

Shelob: In an earlier post, I expressed puzzlement over not concluding the Frodo-Sam part of the story with Shelob. Turns out, it makes sense. Utterly no problems in that department. Unfortunately, the substitute "climax" for the Frodo-Sam storyline lacks something: there was something very false about the action of the men in that scene. A tower collapses from a large projectile and, I don't know, people don't react quite how you'd figure. And then people end up running around and fighting or something, but the source of the commotion seems to be left unattended. I couldn't figure that out at all. Of course, then comes the aforementioned problem I had with Faramir.

Gandalf: What a thrill his first scene is! And although I didn't appreciate the expedited handling of the Ents, the expedited handling of Gandalf's return is right on the money.