I do have two complaints. Like Fellowship, Towers suffers somewhat from being limited by the amount of time in which it must play, and some of the early scenes in particular are a little too snippy. Since Fellowship was recently released as an (improved) extended version with 30 extra minutes of footage incorporated into it, I hope that the filmmakers are planning to do likewise with Towers (and Return of the King, for that matter). I only wish that such an extended edit was made available to the theaters.

The other problem concerns an added plot device where Aragorn disappears in a similar way to Gandalf in Fellowship. People familiar with the book will not be fooled, since we know how important Aragorn is to the plot. People unfamiliar with the book will also not be fooled, since it's already clear that Aragorn is pretty important to the plot. Instead, it comes across as a gimmick that tries to recreate the shock of seeing Gandalf fall into the depths of Moria. Any shock that does succeed in sticking comes quickly unglued twenty minutes later when Aragorn reappears (with no real explanation of how he actually survived his fall).

In the scheme of the movie, however, this is a minor quibble. As before, Middle Earth looks absolutely beautiful; the cinematography is superb. There is plenty of action, with battles involving wizards, balrogs, Uruk Hai, men, elves, dwarves, orcs, wargs, oliphaunts and ents. There are themes of loyalty, treachery, political intrigue, and fighting in the face of overwhelming odds. There's even an element of romance, and a nice love triangle that will have to wait until next Christmas to get resolved.

The trouble is, I can't wait.

(Originally posted here by the Limey Brit.)