As I said in my review of the previous Lord of the Rings movie, this thing really shouldn't work. It's a fantasy movie so that's automatically a strike against it. Usually that straight to video or late night cable genre is either filled camp [intentional or not] and/or lots of skin. While I'll personally never tire of either of those staples of cinema you're not going to gain any sort of mainstream respect working in those areas. The movie has people dressed as elves and everybody gets through the scene with a straight face. It has computer generated characters, something that is usually instant death in modern movies. It's a three hour movie that has no beginning and no end. Somehow this all works.

I have no clue how director Peter Jackson managed to juggle all three movies more or less simultaneously but with Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers he's managed to bring the writing of Tolkein to the screen in a way that reflects his own view of the source material. The movie opens [or, more accurately, jumps up and gets going] with a battle between Gandalf [Ian McKellen] and a monstrous creature of fire and smoke named Balrog in which the two of them tumble down farther and farther underground. The images of them dueling while in free fall into the center of the world are weird, oddly poetic, and like nothing I've ever seen in a movie before.

Speaking of things that shouldn't work, there's Gollum/Smeagol. While Andy Serkis did both the voice and the on-set acting for the creature, everything seen on the screen of Gollum is created via computer generated imagery. It's amazing how many movies I've seen use this technology considering hardly any of them pull it off correctly. Millions of dollars, thousands of man hours, and unimaginably advanced computer technology all go into making crummy looking special effects that would have probably worked better using something like a guy in a suit. When the use of CGI isn't subtle it really, really isn't subtle and looks about as realistic looking as commercials for sugar-coated breakfast cereal that feature children interacting with anthropomorphic cartoon pitch men. My initial fears was I was that I was going to get a three hour version of The Mummy Returns or something equally bad. Instead it worked. Gollum could have been the most annoying thing seen on screen since Jar Jar Binks but instead he was scary, amusing in the appropriate places, and ultimately pathetic. Adding to his almost Shakespearean sense of tragedy was that Gollum got to talk directly to the camera. A computer generated character delivering soliloquies -a technique that usually falls flat outside of live theater- and it worked. Unbelievable.

If I felt like making a guess as to why The Two Towers works -and since it's my page I'll do whatever I please- it's that it's accessible on so many levels. Want to get the general population to see it? It's plot is easily boiled down to a good verses evil idea with the whole thing hinging on either having the good guys chuck the ring into the the big flaming whatzit [they win] or having the ring snitched by the bad guys [they lose.] For those that know the original books better than they know themselves there are endless little bits in the movie for them to either enjoy or crab about. Legolas the elf [Orlando Bloom] shows up to get the girls to stay in their seats. There's literally something for everyone. Usually when you come across a movie that can be described like that it actually means that everyone who views the movie will be annoyed with it for different reasons. Thankfully The Two Towers doesn't go the route of "movie by committee" where a film is put together more with the interest of merchandising and trying to appeal to different pre-determined market groups, instead it's the straight vision of the people creating the movie that -for some reason or another- has struck a chord with people. Instead of simply liking big movies, it turns out people like big, good movies.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the work of John Rhys-Davies as the dwarf Gimli. In spite of having to work around a big fake beard and a great deal of forced perspective photography he's managed to turn his character into the Jack Burton [of Big Trouble in Little China fame] of the fantasy world. One wonders what indignities he will have to swagger through in the next film. I should also mention Liv Tyler's work as Arwen Undomiel. Even though she's the daughter of Gollum-like Steven Tyler she makes for a very fetching elf maiden. Wait a sec. There's Arwen and Legolas... okay, forget everything I said previously about the possible reasons for the success of the Lord of the Rings movies. The truth is people are going to the movies due to some sort of bizarre fetish for elves.

Questions, comments, and elf related e-mail can be sent to gleep9@hotmail.com. If you're done here ride your big, walking tree back to either the Third Movie or Main page.