I haven't seen the second. I liked the first a lot, but I didn't love it. Eye candy, good casting, and the story was, well, THE story. It might grow on me if I saw it again. I do think that some disappointments might have existed because folks who'd read the books knew loose ends would be tied up in future movies. At the end, I was thinking "that's it?" There are also many, many details that have to be left out when a film is made from a book such as this. Sometimes they choose to not include things that are really needed for the story to make sense. Maybe that happened with this movie? I don't know - I'm just speculating. I haven't read the books either although I started at least 4 times. I DID, however, see the South Park "take off" on it before I saw FotR.

I'll see the Two Towers.