The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) New Line Cinema/Action-Adventure-Fantasy RT: 223 minutes (Extended Version) Rated PG-13 (intense battle sequences, scary images) Director: Peter Jackson Screenplay: Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair and Peter Jackson Music: Howard Shore Cinematography: Andrew Lesnie Release date: December 18, 2002 (US) Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Andy Serkis, Christopher Lee, Bernard Hill, Miranda Otto, Karl Urban, Brad Dourif, Hugo Weaving, Liv Tyler, David Wenham, John Noble, Cate Blanchett, Craig Parker, John Leigh, Bruce Hopkins, John Bach, Sean Bean. Box Office: $342.5 million (US)/$926 million (World)
Rating: ****
Somebody once asked me which one of the LOTR movies is my least favorite and I quickly responded The Two Towers, but not because I dislike the film. It’s an excellent movie, but the narrative structure really threw me off the first time I saw it. I had just finished reading J.R.R Tolkien’s book that evening and it was fresh in mind as I took my seat for the midnight preview.
The book is divided into two parts with the first part focusing on the war in Rohan and the second following Frodo and Sam as they continue their journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring. Jackson rejects this structure, instead cutting back and forth between the dual plotlines.It makes perfect sense to do it this way, but I wasn’t expecting it. He also changes the sequence of events and moves a few things around. For example, the Battle of Helm’s Deep, which originally occurs in the middle of the book, becomes the climax of Jackson’s adaptation.
Apparently, Jackson originally wanted to do LOTR in two movies. When the studio gave him the okay to turn it into a trilogy, he and the other writers shuffled a few things around in order to make an exciting film with a clear beginning and end. A friend who’s a big fan of the books pointed out that a straight adaptation of The Two Towers would yield one boring ass movie! I rewatched it a few days later and thoroughly enjoyed it. When I think about it, I really should have expected something like this given that movie adaptations often differ from the original source, sometimes to the point where those who read the book beforehand don’t even recognize the movie.
That being said, Jackson turns in a great fantasy/adventure flick that’s absolutely worthy of its predecessor. Some have called The Two Towers a sequel, but that’s an unfair and inaccurate label. It’s NOT a sequel! It’s part of a planned trilogy! The three LOTR books comprise one huge epic adventure tale and you really can’t watch one without seeing the others.
Obviously, The Two Towers picks up right where Fellowship of the Ring left off. Frodo (Wood) and Sam (Astin) are on their way to Mordor, completely unaware that they’re being followed by Gollum (Serkis), the pathetic creature who lost his “Precious” to Bilbo Baggins. Aragorn (Mortensen), Legolas (Bloom) and Gimli (Rhys-Davies) have set out to rescue Merry (Monaghan) and Pippin (Boyd) from the Uruk-hai warriors. War is looming on the horizon as Saruman (Lee) has sent his legions of Orcs to lay siege to the lands. They’re heading for Rohan whose king Theoden (Hill, Titanic) has been entranced by Grima Wormtongue (Dourif, The Exorcist III) who’s secretly in the service of Saruman. He’s tricked into banishing his own nephew Eomer (Urban, Star Trek) after the young man accuses Wormtongue of being a spy. Aragorn and company encounter Eomer who informs them of their ambush on the Uruk-hai army that was holding their hobbit friends prisoner. Merry and Pippin manage to escape into Fangorn forest where they meet Treebeard, a walking and talking tree commonly known as an Ent. Eventually, the trio meets up with Gandalf (McKellen) who’s been reborn as Gandalf the White after his battle with the Balrog inside the Mines of Moria.
Meanwhile, Gollum attempts to steal the ring from Frodo and gets captured. Taking pity on the wretched creature, Frodo agrees to let him live and act as their guide to the gates of Mordor. Eventually, the two hobbits get captured by the Rangers of Ithilien whose leader Faramir (Wenham, 300) wants to bring them and the ring back to Gondor to aid his father Denethor (Noble, The Last Airbender) in the upcoming battle against Saruman’s forces. Faramir is also the brother of Boromir (Bean) who, as you remember, was killed at the end of the previous film.
All of this leads up to the spectacular Battle of Helm’s Deep and the simultaneous attack on Isengard where Saruman’s tower is located. I haven’t told you everything about The Two Towers; this is just a synopsis of the basic storyline. Don’t worry, the movie still moves at a fairly rapid pace despite its running time of nearly three hours and forty-five minutes. Once again, let me remind you that I’m reviewing the special Extended Edition and NOT the theatrical version that ran just a hair under three hours.
What can I say, these movies ROCK! Despite the initial off-putting narrative structure, The Two Towers is great stuff. I think it’s important to note that a movie this cool works primarily because of the CGI effects. Yes, I’m fully aware that this goes against everything I’ve previously said about this type of special effects work. In general, CGI effects are my sworn enemy! They tend to look incredibly fake and obviously computer generated. In the case of the LOTR trilogy, Jackson uses the process to his advantage. The movies look great, but I’m forced to ask myself whether or not a movie this awesome would have been possible about 25-30 years ago. Quite possibly, yes. But it would have been super expensive and extremely difficult to make. It would have cost more than a hundred million to make and no studio could put up that kind of cash back in the day. Nowadays, it’s no big deal when a studio spends $100-$200M (or more) to make a movie, but I still remember when people made a fuss over The Cotton Club’s $50M+ price tag.
Thanks to CGI effects, a movie like The Two Towers (as well as the other two installments) is possible. Like I said, it looks great! The sets, the costumes, the locations, the visuals ….. simply amazing! Gollum looks like a living, breathing being instead of special effects trickery. Once again, the actors do a tremendous job. They make unbelievable characters seem very believable. Tolkien really accomplished something special with the creation of Middle Earth. He created this universe in the pages of a book and Jackson brings it to full glorious life on the big screen. It’s a match (albeit a posthumous one) made in Heaven. Quite honestly, I don’t know of any filmmaker that could pull it off as well. I’m not even sure George Lucas would have done the original source material any kind of justice. This comes from somebody who didn’t read the books until well into adulthood. As awesome and bad ass as this is, it gets even better with the final installment.
