The captivating
thing about The Two Towers is the fight choreography and the battle
at Helm’s Deep (which was kind of the movie’s climax). It’s one that you won’t
forget 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 while it may not be the best of the three, The Two Towers delivered
some powerful performances, especially from Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), the
dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom).
After you’ve
watched The
Fellowship of the Ring, you’re ever so eager to see what the
Fellowship—now broken into three groups: Frodo with Sam, Pippin with Merry, and
Aragorn 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 Wood) 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 to rescue them.
While they chased, Merry and Pippin found an adventure of their own in the
forest. The rescuers—Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas—found themselves in Rohan and
had to save the king and defend the city from an attack by 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):
- In the book, Théoden is just depressed and deluded
by Wormtongue, but in the movie, he is possessed by Saruman.
- Théoden didn’t just run to Helm’s Deep as the movie
made it seem—he actually fought at first.
- The exclusion of Shelob, who was later included in
the final movie of the trilogy.
Not winning as
much as the first, The 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 production cost.
While not as
much of a powerful score as The Fellowship of the Ring, the movie is a
nice follow-up to the first. It served as a bridge from an excellent beginning
in the trilogy (The
Fellowship of the Ring) to a magnificent ending (The
Return of the King). You can’t watch the first only without seeing this
one too, so get the DVD box set and enjoy.
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