Move over boys, this is how an epic is done

Today, partly to celebrate my hard-won day off from work but mostly just on general principle, solarbird, risu and I went to go ogle a matinee showing of The Two Towers.

Spoiler-free short review: much fighting goodness, much easy-on-the-eyes swoonability on the parts of both Aragorn and Legolas, much heroic and stoic striving in the face of growing temptation on the part of Frodo, a bit more noticeable deviation from trad Tolkien. Didn't quite grip me in the same way that Fellowship did; the first movie actually made me cry in multiple places (and still can pull that off, as I learned while viewing it again tonight), but this one was livelier and actually made me clap my hands and laugh in delight. Right in the middle of a battle scene, even! The bits where the movie deviates from the book may annoy some; me, I didn't find them too much of a problem. Dar, who has not yet read the book, noted nowhere that stood out glaringly as if it did not belong with the rest of the plot, which I take as a sign that they integrated the new stuff more than adequately for the eyes of someone new to the story.

And now, for heavy-duty spoilers. If you haven't read the trilogy and haven't seen the movie yet, do not under any circumstances ( click here... )