Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

10/10

Starring

Elijah Wood

Ian McKellen

Sean Astin

Viggo Mortensen

Andy Serkis

Liv Tyler

Cate Blanchett

John Rhys-Davies

Directed by Peter Jackson

The captivating thing about Two Towers is the fight choreography and the battle at Helm’s Deep (which was kind of the movie’s climax), it is one that you will not forget that easily and the movie is just another powerful extension of what Peter Jackson could do, the movie is filled with a lot more CGI (from my view) than the first, and it may not be the best of the three, but Two Towers delivered some powerful performances, especially from Aragon (Viggo Mortensen), the Dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and the Elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom).

After you have watched The Fellowship of the Rings, you are ever so eager to see what the Fellowship, (which is now broken into three groups Frodo with Sam, Pippin with Merry and Aragon with Legolas and Gimli) will be able to achieve on their own, as part of the master plan to destroy the ring at Mount Doom. The interesting thing about watching this flick is that some managed victory in their own areas, giving you the viewer a delightful hope, while Frodo (Elijah Woods) and Sam (Sean Astin) were moving closer to their target.

The movie’s plot is focused mostly on the battle at Helm’s Deep. The other fellowship members except Frodo and Sam and, after the fall of Gandalf when he battled the Balrog, chased after the Uruk-hai who took Merry and Pippin so as to rescue them. While they chased, Merry and Pippin found an adventure of their own in the forest. The rescuers Aragon, Gimli and Legolas found themselves in Rohan and had to save the king and defend the city from an attack from Saruman’s forces, this defense and intense battle happened at Helm’s Deep.

The three most notable changes in the movie compared to the book that I picked up instantly are (although many other differences can be found) 1. In the book Theoden is just depressed and deluded by Wormtongue, but in the movie he is possessed by Saruman. The second is about Theeoden, who didn’t just run to Helm’s Deep as the movie made it see, he actually fought at first. The last was the exclusion of Shelob, who was later included in the final movie of the trilogy.

Not winning as much as the first, Two Towers won two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best sound editing. It was a commercial success, making close to 10 times its 94 million dollars production cost.

Not as much of a powerful score like The Fellowship of the Ring, the movie is a nice follow-up to the first, and it served like a bridge from an excellent beginning in the trilogy (in the fellowship of the ring) to a magnificent ending (in the Return of the King). You can’t watch the first only without seeing this also, so get the DVD box set and enjoy.