The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Movie Reviews | Dec 12th, 2002
Starring Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Miranda Otto, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Christopher Lee, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill, Karl Urban
Written By: J.R.R. Tolkien (story), Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson
Directed By: Peter Jackson
I’m looking at this trilogy as one movie because you can’t really compared the two films so far. You have to see it as a whole first to say which one is your favorite and so on. For the books, I didn’t like The Two Towers as much as the first and third books.
Though, in the end, I have a feeling the third film, Return of the King will be the best one out of all them though, just because all this stuff is supposed to happen in it and I like the last movie of trilogies. But Two Towers is still an almost perfect movie. You’d be foolish not to see this. Likes/ Dislikes: The beginning of the movie starts off fantastic and the movie “dives” right into the story. I’m glad they did this and didn’t have opening credits or another prologue. I wish this part was longer but they go back to it in the middle of the movie a lil’ bit. The story that interested me most in the books and in the movies was the story of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. Frodo, Sam and Gollum part of the books were slow and boring but in the films, they were really interesting and some of the best scenes in the film. I’ll get into Gollum later.
Some purists of the book might not be happy with some changes in the movie but I think they changed some things for the better. Or the changes made the story even more interesting and have more feeling to it. I loved Helm’s Deep. That’s the absolute highlight of the film. The battle scenes were jaw dropping. Another jaw dropping scene was the storming of Isengard with the Ents. I loved that scene a lot too because you get to see some treelike creatures kick some ass and destroy things. It’s payback time! The only real complaints I had was that there wasn’t enough time with Gandalf and Eomer. I know the Gandalf plot follows the book pretty well but when he comes back, there was a bit more discussion about what went on. But I’m sure some of it was cut for pacing reasons. I think he uses more magic and shows more of his badass side to him. Though i’m sure it will be on the Extended Cut of the DVD. Eomer was good in the scenes he was in, but there wasn’t many of them. I have a feeling his character will show up more on the DVD or will be much bigger in the third movie. In the book, he was at Helm’s Deep but this wasn’t the case for the movie. It still works in the film but I would have liked to see and Aragorn grow a bond together like they do in the books.
Acting/ Direction/ Effects: Let’s talk about acting and the characters of the film. Besides Helm’s Deep, Gollum was the other highlight for me and many others I’ve talk to. Gollum is by the far the best CGI creature/actor I’ve ever seen. And you guys know how picky I am when it comes to CGI. I’ve always said the characters still look fake, but landscapes, and structures looked great. I was going in, thinking Gollum would look good some times, but pretty fake throughout the movie. I was wrong and I’m glad WETA digital proved me wrong. Besides the CGI, the acting was teriffic. You can see Andy Serkis as Gollum through the character. Besides his voice, you can see his facial expressions, and movements that Andy acted out. I feel Andy Serkis deserves an Oscar for his performance. That’s how well done Gollum is.
One of my favorites scenes in the film was with Gollum and his split personality Smegol arguing with himself was just classic. Besides Gollum, The new characters like King Theoden, Eomer, Eowyn, Wormtongue and Faramir are done well. Theoden is just the way I pictured him when reading the books. Same goes with Wormtongue. He was so creepy and snakish. Brad Dourif and Bernard Hill deserve recognition for those roles. David Wenham as Faramir did a decent job, though not that much screen time, though more than Eomer. The character of Faramir in the books was a little bit nicer and not as tempted with the ring like it was in the movie. Though I think this was one of the good changes in the movie.
Besides the new characters, the old ones were awesome. Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn) carries this films on his shoulders and I’m glad because he’s one of my favorite characters. John Rhys-Davies (Gimli) gets more time on the screen and is the comic relief of the film. I thought his character was absolutely hilarious this time around. Anything he did or say was funny. I’m glad they did this because this movie is pretty dark and more intense so it needed a few laughs. Ian McKellen is always excellent at anything he does, but I wish there was more scenes with him. Elijah Wood doesn’t lead this film this time around because it’s Viggo’s turn, but still does the job. Sean Astin gets more screen time this film and I like his speech at the end of the film. It’s touching and kind of hooky at the same time but what do you expect when you have a swashbuclking adventure fantasy film. Merry and Pippin get less screentime but still play important parts. Same goes with Elrond and Arwen, less screen time. Ok, I think this review is long enough…
Conclusion: The second part of LOTR is just as good as the first film, but goes into a different direction. This film is more about the humans and Aragorn, than it is about the Hobbits. The film is much more intense and darker too. I also liked the Norse/ Conan The Barbarian feel to the film as well. Gollum and Helm’s Deep are the highlights of the film. I’d see this film as soon as possible because it’s amazing!
Favorite Scenes: The beginning, Gollum!!!!, Nazgul on the Felled Beasts! Gollum/Smegol argument, HELM’S DEEP!, Storming of Isgenard and Gimli was hilarious.
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 214 minutes
Overall Rating:
