The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Lord of the Rings:  The Two Towers (2002) -- P. Jackson

Once started, I felt compelled to finish the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but with each film around 3 hours long, I'll admit it was a bit of a hard slog. I don't remember the books being non-stop battle, but perhaps Peter Jackson found it more enjoyable to film these orcs vs. men scenes, full of computer generated (and algorithmically controlled) characters. This gets a bit boring. However, some of the fantastical characters dreamt up by Tolkien, such as the Ents (or tree-herders), are still wondrous. The arc of the story and some of the dialogue seems vaguely Shakespearean at times, but these moments are too few and far between. (2008 review).