Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Fellowship of the Ring was a competent film that was way too long for a movie meant to introduce us to the world of Middle Earth. While The Two Towers is a marked improvement, it suffers to a lesser extent the same problems its predecessor had.

The Two Towers continues on with the adventures of various groups of characters right where they left off after the Fellowship was no more. Frodo and Sam are still trekking toward Mount Doom to destroy the ring. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are trying to follow their tracks as well as the tracks of Merry and Pippin, who have been taken hostage by Orcs.

For Frodo and Sam, they meet the creature Gollum, who wants "his precious" back, but is soon forced to lead the way into Mordor. But they are soon discovered by a group from Gondor led by Faramir, the brother of Borodir, and taken as prisoners.

For the others, Merry and Pippin escape from their captors after they were slaughtered and head into a forest where the trees are alive. Here, they find that Gandalf is alive and he tells one of the trees to protect the two for the time being. When the tree and the two hobbits find part of the forest cut, the trees soon declare war on Isengard. Alas, the army from Isengard are in a weakened Rohan, where most of its troops have been banished by an affected king and the Isengard threaten to overrun one of its most indestructible fortresses, Helm's Pass. It is here where Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli help them make their stand.

Fellowship of the Ring spent way too much time introducing us to the characters that it didn't spend enough time on the exciting action relegated to the end of the movie. The Two Towers doesn't have this burden to bear but still takes the time to re-acquaint us with the first movie through dreaded flashbacks, which are unneeded. In my eyes, the movie doesn't truly start until Gandalf reappears in the forest. From then on, the pace quickens and the events more exciting, but it never falls into a rhythm. They want to remain faithful to the book, which is commendable, but there's so much going in so many different places that the only way to touch bases with them all is to cut away every few minutes to the next place. It all degenerates into pieces of battle scenes and chase sequences put together into a jigsaw puzzle. What it has going for it however is that these battle scenes and chase sequences are all top-notch, especially the big Isengard vs. Rohan battle where thousands of troops fight each other in rain, different terrain, and in the midst of lots of arrows at Helm's Pass. It's a worthy middle chapter, if long (3 hours!), and leads in greatly with the third and final chapter of the trilogy Return of the King. 3 stars