AGW Entertainment reporter Lynn B. saw a new adventure film. Here are her thoughts on....

LORD OF THE RINGS: The Two Towers

New Line Pictures

When we last saw the stalwart Fellowship, members were broken, killed, abducted or lost on the way to Mordor. Since then, they've gotten 13 Oscar nominations and made a load of cash! This middle installment of the trilogy involves a totally new computer-generated character, the Gollum who was modeled after actor Andy Serkis. Serkis crawled and hopped around Frodo and Sam in a motion capture suit so that animators could copy his performance. Can you give an award to a CGI character? We may find out.

"Towers" picks up where "Fellowship" left off and continues on several fronts. Sam and Frodo continue on their quest to Mordor while teaming up with the sly Gollum who pretends to be their guide. Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli and their allies go to rescue Merry and Pippin but must sidestep to aid the people of Rohan who are being attacked by Sarumon and Sauron's army. Aragorn and Eowyn, the Rohan princess, are mutually attracted. Gandalf reappears as Gandalf the White, explaining how he survived his death fall with the Balrog in the previous film.

Merry and Pippin decide to go home but are prevented by Treebeard, an Ent who protects the local forest. The two hobbits are instrumental in leading the huge tree-people Ents into the battle of Helms Deep where their buddies are also joined by an Elvish army in their attempt to save Rohan and eventually, Middle Earth.

This second installment of the Tolkien tale is much more absorbing, exciting and mystically dark than its predecessor. It also moves much faster. Whereas much of "Fellowship" was involved with trekking and searching and hiding and trekking some more, "Towers" involves budding betrayal, a love interest that may result in a triangle and some incredible HUGE-scale battle action.

There is also the addition of the Gollum (whom we met very briefly in "Fellowship"). This sleazy little dude talks like Yoda (if he swallowed a snake) and darned if his great big eyes don't have real life in them. The CGI wizards have finally created a character that can truly interact with live-action actors in a believable manner. When Gollum grips Frodo's cloak, you see the tiny indentations of his bony fingertips in the fabric. The little guy will either grow on you…like a fungus or you'll want to drop kick him in the first ten minutes. I grew to like him. Those dark rider guys have graduated to riding awesome dragons while another of the evil armies ride what look like a cross between a wolf and a very ticked-off hyena. The Ents are fun giant old men…with bark. There are many-tusked elephant beings, etc. If you blink, you miss something.

Some of the dialogue is melodramatic and straight from a Sword and Sorcery novel but, what did I expect? It fits the film. Even simplistic truths like "There is good worth fighting for," make complete sense coming from the loyal and straightforward Sam. Performances are strong all around and it's nice to see another princess who fights shoulder-to-shoulder with her men. I would have liked to have seen less focus on battle and a little more on the Aragorn, Eowyn, Arwen love triangle to better personalize the story and Gimli's attempts at comic relief (he falls down a lot) were a little lame and really unnecessary. The ending of the piece is not too satisfying but then we know all will be wrapped up in "Return of the King". All-in-all, the middle of the trilogy is a far better film than Part I.

Rated: PG-13

Official website: www.lordoftherings.net