Sort By: By Genre  |  By Rating  |  By Year

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan
Director: Peter Jackson
Genre: Action
Year: 2002
Rating: 5 / 5

Reviewed by Guest Scribe Legend

One of the nice things about Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is that it pick up exactly where The Fellowship of the Ring leaves us. There is no pandering to the uninitiated soul clueless enough to go into this without having seen what happened before. After an action-packed opening sequence of Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the Balrog plummeting through the depths of the chasm at Khazad-Dûm, the movie primarily follows three main storylines, each focusing on a different group of the fellowship that was splintered at the end of our first chapter.

Merry and Pippin (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd), captured by a band of orcs, are being dragged to Isengard, falsely mistaken for the Ringbearer and a companion. Needless to say, they make their escape, foraying into the dreaded Fangorn Forest as a means of escape.

Meanwhile, their friends Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Samwise (Sean Astin) move ever so steadily towards the fires of Mount Doom where they hope to destroy the One Ring. Frodo’s role deepens quite a lot here, and turns more psychological than emotional as he marshals the willpower necessary to bear the burden no elf queen or wizard would be able to bear. Frodo and Sam quickly meet up with the pathetic, emaciated Gollum (Andy Serkis), one of Tolkien’s most well-known characters as he plays a chief part in The Hobbit, the children’s story which serves as a prequel to the epic. Completely a CGI character, Gollum raises the bar and then some for such creations. His movements are non-human, yet there is a distinct, albeit weak, humanity left in him as his vulnerable Sméagol persona duels with the dominant, wicked Gollum persona, slave to the One Ring. The relationship between Frodo and the conflicted Gollum is definitely one of the more interesting aspects of the movie, and plays out brilliantly.

Noteworthy for worming into Frodo and Sam’s plot is Faramir (David Wenham), who is confronted with the same challenges his brother Boromir faced in using the Ring for Gondor rather than destroying it. The plot of the film deviates from the book as Faramir brings the hobbits to the besieged Gondorian city of Osgiliath. The graphics here are genuinely masterful, culminating in one of the more compelling and unexpected (at least for readers of the trilogy) sequences in The Two Towers.

Most of the action, however, focuses on Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), who marches into the kingdom of Rohan in pursuit of Merry and Pippin. With his companions – the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli the dwarf (John Rhys-Davies) – Aragorn’s quest sidetracks as he finds himself amid the brewing conflict between the minions of Isengard, led by Saruman (Christopher Lee), and the Rohirrim. The Rohirric king, Théoden suffers from a mind poisoned by an insidious agent of Saruman, Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), who has Théoden oblivious to the jeopardy in his realm, despite the concerns of his shield maiden niece Éowyn (Miranda Otto) and his nephew Éomer (Karl Urban), outcast by Wormtongue for his defiance. Aragorn’s story is the central one of The Two Towers, though, as most of the action tilts towards the climactic, monstrous battle of Helm’s Deep between Rohan and Isengard with Aragorn and his companions lending a hand.

The movie, visually, is fantastic, which is to be expected. It has many of the elements of a classic, except one which sticks out sorely. This, in no way, is a stand-alone film. It has no beginning, and it has no conclusion, and you have to be content with that – at least for another 12 months. The Two Towers should be viewed as the middle three hours of a marathon nine-hour movie, because, unlike most trilogies, there is no elapsing of months or years between installments. It is one ongoing adventure / war which has enough twists and turns that it needs nine hours to resolve.

A bit disappointing to this viewer was the unnecessary inclusion of Arwen in this installment. She appears twice in dreams, both of which are almost identical and rather time-wasting. Do we really need a reminder of Aragorn and Arwen’s relationship? It does not further the plot of this part of the story at all, and breaks up the action, although maybe that’s what Peter Jackson intended to do. More worthwhile is an emotional scene between Elrond and Arwen, which actually does further the status of her relationship with Aragorn. As Éowyn is a major player in The Two Towers, one would think her presence would allay any fears of disenfranchising female viewers.

Another bizarre plot twist infused into the movie was the temporary disappearance of Aragorn after a skirmish. This was the most irksome part of the film, in fact. Gandalf ostensibly died and reappeared between installments of the trilogy. Is it really necessary for Aragorn to supposedly die for a matter of 15-20 minutes? When even non-readers with no clue of the plot are 100% certain he is not dead? That addition to the film seemed completely pointless and simply falls flat, once again wasting screen time which could have been used for other things.

For example, Merry and Pippin. They are quite marginalized here. Consider this: half of The Two Towers is written from Frodo’s point of view (including one chapter from Sam’s), one quarter is from Pippin’s and one quarter is from Aragorn’s. In other words, in the film, Aragorn’s quarter of the story is basically stealing time vastly from the other two storylines. Pippin’s scenes are neither very long nor include most of his adventure with Merry. This is a shame mostly because The Two Towers is where Pippin and Merry begin to show quite a lot of resourcefulness (especially in their escape from the orcs, which in the film was a simple chase scene). It is necessary to begin to see glimpses that neither is really the dead weight they seem to have been so far, but we shall have to wait for Return of the King, it would seem.

A additional disappointment with Merry and Pippin’s story is the lack of controversy between the orcs of Mordor and Isengard. Readers will find neither Ugluk nor Grishnakh acknowledged in the film, and virtually no interaction between the hobbits and orcs. There is an inter-orc conflict over whether or not to eat the hobbits, with one tatty-looking orc sounding very out of place with a Cockney accent. Orcs should speak poor English (or Westron in the context of the movie) with a guttural, grunting tone as it is their second language.

Petty criticism aside, The Two Towers is definitely a modern classic as it fits nicely into the Lord of the Rings trilogy. While perhaps not surpassing the original film in the magnificence of scenery, it beats Fellowship as an action film. The battles and skirmishes are superb, the music by Howard Shore once again meets the challenge, the costumes and acting are wonderful on the whole, and the end product is a complete package of great entertainment.

Cast:

Certification: Rated PG-13.
Running Time: 179 minutes.

Additional Info: Internet Movie Database
Comments: Send E-mail