Peter Jackson has always maintained that The Two Towers is "the second act" of his epic undertaking, and perhaps the true greatness of the middle chapter will only be clear when viewed in context. As a stand-alone film, however, The Two Towers is not quite as good as Fellowship. (Nor, indeed, does it extend the universe or deepen the relationships in the manner of The Empire Strikes Back.) That it still merits the full five stars is merely an indication of how high the benchmark has been set.
Picking up pretty much where Fellowship left off, this is a considerably darker film, with Frodo (W...
That Damned Ring.
RELEASED IN 2002 and directed by Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” adapts the second part of JRR Tolkien’s popular fantasy trilogy about adventures on Middle-Earth. The surviving ‘Fellowship’ of the first film has been divided into three small groups for this one: The Hobbits Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin) team-up with the mad Gollum (Andy Serkis) to make their way to Mordor, but are captured by Faramir (David Wenham), the brother of the deceased Boromir. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas the Elf (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli the Dwa...
Still probably my favorite of the three, while it's pretty streamlined and far more action centric with little development compared with Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King, I always find this one really entertaining with the Helm's Deep battle. **4.5/5**
I might not have enjoyed it as much as the first film, but 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' is still a terrific film no doubt.
Visually it still looks superb, I really do love the look of these films so far. The main plot is engaging and very interesting, while things like the costumes et al. remain at a high level. There is also top action, including some noteworthy battle sequences.
There are, though, a few bits I found less great - still very good in the grand overall scheme, but just comparably with the 2001 release. I found the pacing to be slightly off in moments, w...
An awesome middle story of the trilogy.
The world of hobbits, elves, dwarves, and others finds a fellowship of nine beings separated to go on different paths. One is dead. Two are captured by orcs. One is presumed dead, but returns in a more powerful form. Three go to war.
The other two become the focus of this story. Hobbits Frodo and Samwise take a magic ring into the land of a devil and his beings, and find a guide, the pathetic Gollum, to aid them.
Meanwhile, the three at war meet with the most interesting and multi dimensional character, King Theoden, and aid him against an onslaught ...
Having used the first film to magnificently, if - at times - a little too earnestly, set the scene and establish the characters, Peter Jackson now cleverly interweaves the continuation of the story as "Frodo" (Elijah Wood) and "Sam" (Sean Astin) take their evil talisman and make their way to the treacherous "Mount Doom" - alighting on the untrustworthy "Gollum" (a wonderful Andy Serkis) en route - to destroy it. Meantime "Gandalf", "Aragorn"; "Gimli" and "Legolas" must track down "Pip" and "Merry" and stop "Rohan" from being over-run by the marauding hordes of "Saruman". This is certainly my f...
93/100
While Frodo & Sam, with the addition of a new traveling companion, Gollum, travel to Mordor, the other hobbits try to convince a tree shepherd to go to war and the Rohan go to Helm's Deep in an attempt to save their people from a massive army. The fact that this film effectively splits the story into several threads, all given proper depth and connecting them all together into a cohesive whole, is what makes this such an epic film. The first time I saw the siege of Helm's Deep, I was stunned. And yet, "...the battle for Middle-earth is about to begin." Amazing film! -- DrNostromo.com
