dragonfire88's Full Review: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Every so often I would hear something about The Lord of the Rings books, but I never read them or knew what they were about. It wasn't until I saw a preview for The Fellowship of the Ring in the fall of 2001 that I found out what The Lord of the Rings was about. The movie looked very interesting to me. I saw The Fellowship of the Ring in the theater and loved it. I now own the extended version DVD. I have been impatient to see the second movie, The Two Towers, for a long time now. I went to see it with my best friend and loved it, though it would have been better if those people hadn’t sat in front of us. There were four of them, and they kept putting their heads together to talk. At one point, all four of them were having some sort of conference, making it impossible for me to see anything. Some people are so rude.
There was a short flashback that showed what had happened to Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. More about what happened to him was shown then. Then The Two Towers picked up right where The Fellowship of the Ring ended. There was no recap of what had happened to remind viewers or to get people who haven’t seen the first movie up to speed. People who haven’t seen The Fellowship of the Ring already will be lost in The Two Towers.
Frodo Baggins and his friend Samwise Gamgee were on there own heading for Mordor so that Frodo could destroy the one ring of power. Frodo had intended to go on the rest of the journey all alone, but Sam refused to leave him. The two hobbits were running low on supplies and seemed to walking in circles. Someone else had been following them and wanted the ring. Gollum had the ring for years before Bilbo found it. Gollum attacked trying to get the ring back. Frodo and Sam fought him off. They came to an agreement. Gollum would guide them to Mordor. Sam didn’t trust Gollum and wasn’t thrilled with the agreement. The ring was getting heavier and effecting Frodo in different ways. The ring wanted to return to Sauron.
Merry and Pippin, the other two hobbits who had been part of the fellowship, had been captured by the Uruk-hai and were being taken to Saruman. The Uruk-hai were warriors that fought for Saruman. The Uruk-hai stopped to rest and were attacked. Merry and Pippin were able to get away into a near by forest. They met the Ents, large tree like beings. They also saw someone they didn’t expect to see again. The two hobbits remained with the Ents.
Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli were traveling together, tracking the Uruk-hai that had taken Merry and Pippen. They ended up in the same forest where they were surprised to meet up with an old friend. They traveled to Rohan where Saruman’s forces were headed. Theoden had his people leave and head for Helm’s Deep, a strong hold in the mountains. His daughter, Eowyn seemed to develop feelings for Aragorn. Saruman sent a huge army of Uruk-hai to Helm’s Deep.
Who would win the battle of Helm’s Deep? What happens to everyone? Can Sam and Frodo trust Gollum?
CAST
Frodo Baggins - Elijah Wood Gandalf - Ian McKellen Aragorn - Viggo Mortensen Sam - Sean Astin Pippin - Billy Boyd Merry - Dominic Monaghan Arwen - Liv Tyler Gimli - John Rhys-Davies Saruman - Christopher Lee Legolas - Orlando Bloom Eowyn - Miranda Otts Theoden - Bernard Hill Galadriel - Cate Blanchett Faramir - David Wenham Gollum - Andy Serkis Elrond - Hugo Weaving
Peter Jackson - Director
Frances Welsh, Phillippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Peter Jackson - Screenplay
The Two Towers was released on December 18, 2002. The movie was 179 minutes long. It was rated PG-13 for some scary scenes and battle sequences. I think that the movie was too violent for children. Since the movie was so long, children could get bored watching it. There wasn’t any swearing in the movie. The Two Towers was based on the book of the same name by J.R.R. Tolkien. I have not read the book yet so I don’t know how close the movie follows the book.
The Two Towers was the second part of The Lord of the Rings. It was not a sequel to The Fellowship of the Ring. It was a continuation of the same story. The Lord of the Rings was one very long story that was divided up into three book when it was published. The Fellowship of the Ring was the first book. Three movies were made based on The Lord of the Rings. All three movies were filmed at the same time, like one very long movie. All three tell the same story, though there are some subplots in each of them. People who did not see the movie version of The Fellowship of the Ring or read the book will be lost in The Two Towers. It is the middle part of the story, and it is meant to be seen after The Fellowship of the Ring. These movies are not meant to stand alone. They need to be watched in order so that people can follow what is going on.
The Two Towers covered three different storylines. The fellowship had broken apart and the members were going off in different directions. Frodo and Sam continued on to Mordor and were joined by Gollum. Merry and Pippin had been taken by the Uruk-hai. They eventually ended up with the Ents. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli were tracking Merry and Pippin. They went to Rohan and ended up going with the people to Helm’s Deep where they fought in the huge battle. The movie jumped around among all three of the main storylines. I think there was more focus on Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli throughout the movie.
The Two Towers was much darker than The Fellowship of the Ring. Sauron was gaining strength and becoming more powerful. Saruman was also more powerful. His army of Uruk-hai kept growing larger. Saruman’s reach across Middle Earth was spreading. The ring was starting to affect Frodo and what he did. There was a huge battle at Helm’s Deep. The overall tone of The Two Towers was dark. The evil forces were gaining strength. There had been some dark moments in The Fellowship of the Ring, but overall it was a much lighter movie. There was some humor here and there throughout The Two Towers that helped to lighten the mood. Gimli was used as comic relief more than once.
There was more violence in The Two Towers than there had been in The Fellowship of the Ring. In the first movie, there were just a few fights in the movie, including the bigger fight near the end with the Uruk-hai. There were some fights at several different times in The Two Towers in which people and orcs were injured or even killed. Body parts were severed in some of the fights. One scene showed the head of a Uruk-Hai on a stick. Another scene had someone showing another character the severed head of a Uruk-Hai and pointing out the white hand print on it. There was a huge battle at Helm’s Deep in which thousands fought. Many were injured or killed in that scene. Arrows and swords were used in the battle. I thought that there was a lot of violence in this movie. People who don’t like to see violent scenes in movies probably shouldn’t see this movie. There wasn’t a lot of action in the movie though. Almost all of the action that was in the movie was near the end during the battle at Helm’s Deep.
There were a few flashbacks in The Two Towers. The first turned up right at the beginning of the movie. It showed more of what happened to Gandalf. Later in the movie, a flashback showed some more about the relationship between Aragorn and Arwen. It was very clear that the scenes were flashbacks. They did slow the movie down a bit. They probably didn’t need to be in the movie at all, but they didn’t really bother me.
The special effects in The Two Towers were absolutely amazing. Gollum was a CGI character, but he looked incredibly life like. Even though I know that character was done all with computers, it still seems hard to believe at times because of how well he was done. He interacted seamlessly with Frodo and Sam, including touching them at times. In one scene he was pulling on the clothes of Frodo. You can see the fabric move. Gollum is the best CGI character ever done for a movie. He was amazing. The Ents were giant tree like creatures that talked and moved. They were created with special effects too, and were also very well done. They seemed real to me even though I know there is no such creature. I know that many things in the movie were done with special effects because they just couldn’t have been done any other way - like the Ents - but the special effects didn’t jump out as being obvious. They blended in with the movie and what was going on so that they seemed to be realistic. The Ents seemed like real, living beings. Gollum seemed real. The special effects made some different locations and characters in the movie come to life. The effects really added to the realism of the movie.
The Two Towers had wonderful locations like The Fellowship of the Ring. The movie was full of beautiful scenery. I think that Peter Jackson made a very good decision in setting the movie in New Zealand. The settings made Middle Earth come to life. In some of the scenes, there were elaborate backgrounds, like the keep at Helm’s Deep. That place looked like it really was a very old strong hold. The stone looked aged and weathered. The locations really looked like they were old places that had a rich cultural history. The architecture of that building looked different from buildings in other settings for The Two Towers and The Fellowship of the Ring. Different cultures influenced different settings and that was illustrated in the sets that were designed for the movies. Likewise, each different culture had different types of weapons and clothing. Some of the clothes, like what Arwen wore in her few scenes, were very beautiful. Other things looked like they had been worn for ages during a hard journey. Elves wore different types of clothes than men or dwarfs did. Gimli mainly used his ax in battle. Legolas and the elves used bows and arrows, though they did use swords as well. Aragorn usually used a sword in battle. The Uruk-Hai wore different armor and used different looking swords. The costumes of the different characters added a lot to the movie and made the characters more realistic.
The Two Towers contained a beautiful score like The Fellowship of the Ring did. The score was composed by the same man for both movies. The music was never overpowering. Dialogue could still be clearly heard if a character was talking. The music complimented the action that was going on in the movie at that particular time. Some of the music that played sounded very much like some pieces that were in The Fellowship of the Ring. The music was all instrumental again, though I think I heard some soft singing once near the end of the movie. The sound was just as good in this movie as it was in the first one.
There were many characters in The Two Towers. Some of the characters were also in The Fellowship of the Ring and others made their first appearance in The Two Towers. The characters that returned did some growing or changing. Aragorn became more of a leader. Legolas and Gimli got over the initial hostility they had toward each other and became friends. Merry and Pippin realized just how bad things were and decided they had to do something other than just return to the Shire. Sam continued to look out for Frodo and was taking that responsibility very seriously. The ring started to change how Frodo acted. Arwen, Elrond, and Galadriel were back too, but they were only briefly in The Two Towers. They didn’t really do anything important. Gandalf was in much less of the movie this time, though he changed in a big way. Gollum made a brief appearance in The Fellowship of the Ring, but he didn’t really do anything in that movie. He was much more important in The Two Towers. He was like a new character when he turned up since, and he was developed a great deal during the movie. None of the new characters for this movie were developed that much, though a few of them did play important roles in the plot.
I thought that the acting in The Two Towers was very good. Viggo Mortensen was wonderful as Aragorn. His character was still struggling with who he was, and that showed. Aragorn had tried to deny it before, but he seemed to be slowly accepting it. He showed his abilities as a great leader during the battle at Helm’s Deep. He was emotional at times. Aragorn seemed like a real man to me because of the way Mortensen played him. I read in a book about these movies that another actor was originally cast as Aragorn. I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Mortensen is Aragorn. Elijah Wood wasn’t in as much of the movie as he was in The Fellowship of the Ring, but I thought he was good. Frodo was changing his behavior because of the ring. It was tormenting him, and that was apparent by his face and eyes.
Andy Serkis provided the voice for Gollum in The Two Towers. The voice for Gollum went perfectly with how he looked. Gollum was a more complicated character than he seemed, and his voice changed with his different moods. He was on set and acted during the scenes as Gollum, so the other actors were able to interact with him. He then went to the studio and acted all of Gollum’s scenes again in some sort of suit that tracked his movements for the computer to create the CGI version of Gollum. So even though Gollum was created with computers that was based on the work of a real man.
Faramir was a new character in The Two Towers. He was Boromir’s brother. David Wenham, the actor that played Faramir, looked a lot like the actor that played Boromir. Wenham’s portrayal of Faramir made me hate that character. I have read a few things that indicated that Faramir was not this way in the book. The rest of the cast was also very good, but no other performances really stood out to me.
CHARACTERS
Frodo Baggins - He was a hobbit from the Shire. He inherited a ring from his uncle Bilbo that turned out to be the one ring of power. He was traveling to Mordor to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom where it was forged. Frodo was kind and wanted to do what was right. The ring was affecting him, changing how he acted. Frodo realized what was happening, but he couldn’t always control himself. The ring was able to influence him.
Sam - He was Frodo’s friend. Gandalf told Sam to watch out for Frodo, and Sam was taking that responsibility seriously. He refused to let Frodo go off alone with the ring. Sam was aware of what the ring was doing to Frodo and he was worried about his friend. Sam didn’t trust Gollum.
Gollum - Creature that wanted the ring back. He’d had it for many years when Bilbo found it. The ring caused Gollum to live a very long life. He was determined to get the ring back. He knew about the ring, Sauron, and how to get to Mordor. Gollum was very troubled. He seemed to have some sort of mental problem. He was very disturbed. He seemed to want to help Frodo, but he also plotted ways to get the ring.
Aragorn - He was the true heir of Gondor, though he tried to deny his density. He was worried that he would be corrupted by evil like his ancestors had been. He was loyal. Once he decided to do something, he was determined to see it through. He was a good fighter and became a good leader. He was determined to do what he could to stop Sauron from gaining power again.
Legolas - He was an elf. He had been in the fellowship. He stayed with Aragorn and Gimli after the fellowship broke up. Legolas was a very good archer. He wanted to help Merry and Pippin. He was very upset when he thought something had happened to them. He became friends with Aragorn and Gimli. Legolas was a good fighter. He was willing to fight along side man to stop Sauron.
Gimli - He was a dwarf. He was part of the fellowship after he broke up. He went with Aragorn and Legolas to try to rescue Merry and Pippin. Gimli had some trouble keeping up with his two companions when they were running across land. He didn’t do too well on a horse either. He was a good fighter. Gimli hadn’t liked elves when he joined the fellowship, but he and Legolas became friends. Gimli changed his opinion of elves.
Merry and Pippin - Two hobbits that traveled with Frodo to Rivendell and then joined the fellowship. They were kidnaped by Uruk-Hai and managed to escape. They had been two fun loving hobbits when they started on the journey, but they have matured. They realize how serious things are. They feel like they have to try to do something.
Gandalf - Powerful wizard that was friends with Frodo. Gandalf had gone on an adventure with Bilbo many years before. Gandalf started out in the fellowship and ran into some trouble when they were traveling through the Mines of Moira.
Arwen - Elf that was in love with Aragorn. She gave him her necklace. She didn’t want to leave Rivendell with the other elves. She wanted to be with Aragorn. She still hoped that he would return to Rivendell once the one ring was destroyed.
Theoden - He was the king of Rohn. He didn’t want to go to war. He wanted to keep his people safe, so he ordered everyone to abandon Rohn and go to Helm’s Deep. He was willing to fight to protect his people when it became apparent that they wouldn’t remain safe at Helm’s Deep.
Eowyn - She was Theoden’s daughter. She loved her father. She knew how to fight and was willing to fight to protect the people of Rohn. She developed feelings for Aragorn quickly without any encouragement from him.
The Ents - Large, tree like creatures that lived in an ancient forest. They looked after the trees. They were slow moving and talking. They were aware of things that were going on. They had to decide if they were going to get involved or not.
Uruk-hai - Warriors that Saruman created. They were fierce and showed no mercy. They traveled quickly.
Faramir - Brother of Boromir, one of the members of the fellowship. Faramir was worried about Gondor. He captured Frodo and Sam and though that the ring would allow Gondor to defeat Sauron.
Saruman the White - Powerful wizard that joined forces with Sauron. Saruman was commanding the Uruk-Hai army. He tried to control Theoden, and when that didn’t work, he sent the Uruk-Hai to Helm’s Deep.
There were several other characters in the movie, but I thought that these were the most important characters.
The Two Towers was a wonderful movie. I loved it and will see it in the theater again if I get the chance. It will also be added to my DVD collection once it is available on DVD. People who enjoyed The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring should also enjoy The Two Towers. People who hated the first movie will probably hate this one as well. This is a movie to see in the theater.
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