Overview
War is coming to Middle-earth. The traitor Saruman has unleashed his armies upon Rohan, and Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli aid Rohan's King Theoden against the murderous hordes seeking to pillage his realm. Pippin and Merry have been kidnapped by Orcs and must find a way to escape and somehow aid their friends. Frodo and Sam have to deal with the treacherous Gollum and roaming Nazgul in their journey to Mordor, and the Flaming Eye of Sauron looms over it all.
Negative
No profanity, but there's tons of violence and scary scenes, including a battle with a lot of sword fighting and hacking and slashing. One soldier gets hit by a giant grapple hook shot up the wall. Orcs debate about whether or not to eat Merry and Pippin and end up beheading an Orc and eating him. This is probably the scariest scene, as a particular Orc chases Merry and Pippin and it's in the dark. The orcs look scary, with their misshapen and rotting looking bodies. During a skirmish with Warg riders, a soldier gets bitten by and killed (Off screen). Frodo and Sam cross a bog full of dead bodies, and Frodo falls in and is nearly dragged off to his death by ghosts, it is unclear whether or not these were conjured dup by Frodo's imagination, which seems likely, but either way, it is scary. A pile of burned and blackened bodies is discovered (Basically all you see is blackened armor, weapons, and ash) along with a head stuck on a spearhead (Looks very fake).
Positive
No matter what comes at them, the heroes of the story will not abandon their friends, risking their own lives for each other. They deal with despair and grief, but even amongst all the pain and terror of the war that has crashed onto the world, there is still happiness. A subplot involves a mother sending off her children in the face of a horde of orcs, risking her won life in staying behind, and then meeting up with them later. Young boys are drafted into the army, and we see them, despite their fear, throwing rocks at the orcs, and even wielding swords. Sam meditates about how in all the stories of the heroes, what made them heroes was that they didn't turn back, even when everything fell apart. The film has a strong message of fighting for good even when it seems that evil has taken every stronghold and has every advantage.
Conclusion
The Two Towers is, for the most part, a faithful recreation of the book. I hated what they did to Faramir however. In the book, he resists the ring, even though he was strongly tempted, and aids Frodo in his doomed quest. In the movie, not only does he fail to resist the ring, he learns of it by spying on Frodo, nearly runs him through, and then drags the two hobbits off to Osgiliath, where then, and only then, does he realize that he maybe made a mistake after a Nazgul nearly kills Frodo and gets the ring. However, ultimately, it doesn't matter where the movie deviated from the book because they succeeded in capturing the beliefs that motivated Tolkien to write his tale, and that's what matters.
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