The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Released 2002
Stars Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Miranda Otto, Christopher Lee, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill, Andy Serkis
Directed by Peter Jackson

The Two Towers essentially picks up where The Fellowship of the Ring concludes, albeit following a short flashback to the battle between the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellan) and the Balrog. In the first movie, when Gandalf tumbles from the bridge, we see him disappear into the abyss. Here, however, we follow him as he and the Balrog tumble endlessly downward, continuing their struggle along the way. In the wake of his victory over his foe, Gandalf is reborn as a white wizard, and returns to the world above to re-unite with his former companions. In the company of Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas the elf (Orlando Bloom), and Gimli the dwarf (John Rhys-Davies), the wizard heads for the city of Rohan, where he hopes to convince the king, Theoden (Bernard Hill), that war is upon his kingdom. At the same time, the hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd), having escaped from their orc captors, flee into the forbidding Fanghorn Forest, where they encounter Treebeard the Ent (voice of John Rhys-Davies), a giant shepherd of trees who decides to protect the two diminutive interlopers.

Meanwhile, to the East, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) find themselves lost on their way to Mount Doom. And, in addition to suffering from the physical difficulties of such an arduous journey, Frodo is beginning to show the strain of bearing the ring, with the Dark Lord Sauron's baleful glare constantly seeking him. The creature Gollum (Andy Serkis), who has been following the hobbits, attempts to steal the ring from Frodo, but is subdued and captured. Thereafter, he reluctantly agrees to serve as Frodo and Sam's guide and take them to Mordor.

Summary by James Berardinelli

With the The Fellowship of the Ring, I had low expectations, and I was completely blown away. With this installment, however, I had high expectations and was underwhelmed. It's a good movie, but it lacks the intensity and focus of the first one. The main problem is the party has been split into three, which forces three stories to be woven together. Also, the main character, Frodo, takes a backseat to Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli. I loved the hobbits in the first movie, but here their two plot lines frequently break the mood and the action. I did like the storyline about Gollum/Sméagol, though, and I was amazed by how good he looked. They're really coming close to perfecting CGI characters.

While watching the movie I was struck by the similarity between this story and what's happening in the world today. Saruman is an agent of evil who wishes to destroy the entire world and plunge it into darkness, which is just like Bin Dipshit who is an agent of evil who wants to plunge the entire world into a 5th century Islamic fundamentalist hell. There were a lot of similarities (including a suicide bomber), but, unlike Saruman's evil warriors, terrorists don't fight on the battlefield.

There was one thing I found distracting, and that was the storyline with Pippin, Merry, and the talking trees. Talking trees are a tricky thing to realize visually, because they could easily fall into the realm of the Muppets. While the movie doesn't fall quite that far into cutesy territory, it comes close. I felt like I was watching "The Dark Crystal" at times, and the first movie never felt like that. I also didn't like the fact they used John Rhys-Davies as the voice of Treebeard, because it was so distracting to have two different characters with the same voice. I did like the final battle with the trees, however. That was very cool, but the movie's showcase is the battle of Helm's Deep, which is pretty amazing.

This trilogy must be the most ambitious cinematic undertaking ever. It was brilliant (and extremely risky) to film all three chapters at once to maintain continuity between them. If you look at the other famous trilogy, the original Star Wars, the actors aged significantly throughout, and different production staff was used (including three different directors). All of this was apparent onscreen, but this trilogy so far looks like one extended movie. With the exception of one flashback to Gandalf's battle with Balrog, the movie simply picks up where it left off, and I loved that part of it.

All in all, Two Towers is a good movie, but it suffers from too many portentous moments and long sweeping aerial shots. The first one was great because it took the story seriously but not too reverently. Two Towers seems to think it's telling a biblical story. I plan to see it again to see if I like it better the second time, but I hope the final chapter can recapture the tone of the first one. --Bill Alward, December 20, 2002

After reading the book, watching this movie 5 more times, and having finally seen the extended DVD version, I take back some of the things I said. The extended version adds the elements I felt were missing, and I love this chapter as well. --Bill Alward, January 31, 2004