Here's the skinny on the two towers - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Reviews

What's right with TTT- The visual effects, the cinematography, the set design, the costume design, the sound editing and score, the direction, most of the acting and about a third of the story. What's wrong with TTT- The butchering of the book with the horrible script. Among the most grievous affronts are, in no particular order... -Frodo and Sam never went to Osgiliath with Faramir. Frodo never revealed the One Ring to the Witch King of Angmar, and Sam never gave that contrived speech. -The elves did not goto to aid the Rohirim at Helm's Deep. Moreover, Haldir, an elf of Lothlorien would not lead an elven army from Rivendell...that?s just silly. -Galadriel and Elrond didn't have the telepathic conversation...the mother-in-law scolding her son-in-law...please -The Ents decided at once to march on Isengard...Treebeard didn't need to see felled trees near Orthanc to spur him to action. -Elrond gave Aragorn his blessing, after a fashion, provided the latter reclaimed both the thrones of Gondor and Arnor. -Saruman never sent a warg party to ambush the Rohirim fleeing Edoras. -Faramir's story of his and Boromir's dream (which sent Boromir to Rivendell in the first place) was left out. -It was Erkebrand who saved the day at Helm's Deep. Eomer was already there. -I can see why Sam and Frodo's encounter with Shelob was postponed until the third movie, but I don't have to like it. As character development went, most were true to Tolkien. These would include Gandalf, Saruman, Merry, Pippin, Eowyn, Fangorn, Theoden, Gollum, and Sam (despite that load of tripe in Osgiliath). The few deviations were fairly pronounced. Aragorn's growth and self-realization was non-existent. He seemed shallow at times. Gimli seemed to supply unnecessary comic relief with all the one liners. Legolas was made into an elven Schwarzenegger, Faramir came off as a self-righteous jerk (like Boromir) until the fictitious trip to Osgiliath, Arwen was eye candy, Galadriel and Elrond were well acted, but said and did things that never happened, Grima was wonderfully evil, but unlike the book character, Eomer was largely ignored. Also ignored was the deep friendship that began to mature between Legolas and Gimli...it was only hinted at. The relationship between Aragorn and Arwen was not only overdone, it was mostly fabricated. And Frodo...ah Frodo...He did have a daunting task and a terrible burden, and he was somewhat hoodwinked by Gollum, but he wasn't the simpering ninny he was made out to be in The Two Towers. The Two Towers was as much a failure as The Fellowship of the Ring was a success (Where have you gone, Tom Bombadil). How this will affect The Return of the King remains to be seen. It doesn't look promising. In the trailer, Aragorn is giving a speech to an army that includes Eowyn (in drag) and Merry. That army can only be the one that fought the Battle of the Pellenor Fields. Aragorn didn't lead that army. He arrived later with the Corsair Fleet to turn the tide of the battle. He did lead the Company of the West to the Black Gates after Pellenor, but both Eowyn and Merry were wounded in the earlier battle and were in Minas Tirith. Oops...Only time will tell