MovieDan82 claims that that one of the MPAA committee who watched a print of The Two Towers last week in order to give it a certification (it will be PG-13) says that not only is it better than Fellowship, but is "the best movie I have ever seen." Most interestingly, he claims the running time is below Fellowship, at around 163 minutes.

Update: I've received a few e-mails disputing this report. Indeed it could be false, but Harry at AICN reported that the MPAA has seen a 'check print' recently. Nevertheless, here's a few grains of salt for everyone before we all get too carried away.