LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
DIRECTED BY: PETER JACKSON
WRITTEN BY: FRAN WALSH, PETER JACKSON, STEPHEN SINCLAIR, & PHILIPPA BOYENS
OVERALL SCORE: 10/10
TOP 100 FILMS: #92
As Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) continue their track towards Mordor, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and company must reunite with the last remaining human cities in an attempt to create a force against Saruman (Christopher Lee) who seeks to destory the last of the remaining humans.
There's no denying it, I'm a self admitted LOTR obsessed fan, it was impossibly hard for me to exclude Fellowship of the Ring from my top 100 films, but alas I decided to go with Two Towers and Return of the King. The entire trilogy is simply breathtaking, and Two Towers not only serves as a perfect gap between Fellowship and Return, but it allows us to delve deeper into the personalities, and psychology of the characters that shape their actions in the final film.
Darker, more coherent, and more complete, Two Towers takes full advantage of the grand world Tolkien created. While expanding on some things that were rather small in favor of bigger action scenes, Jackson pays careful attention to the characters, making sure each is dealt with in an appropriate amount of detail, in order to allow us to better understand them. All the while, tagged with the great fluid direction and storytelling abilities of Jackson, in order to make sure the audience is hooked throughout the conversations and fight scenes.
The actors seem far more comfortable with their characters as well (though the films were not shot in order), and the characters feel far better defined. We're introduced to only a handful of new characters, including the now infamous Gollum (Andy Serkis), which only adds to the fun of the film. As well, The Two Towers brings out the morality tale Lord of the Rings encompasses, with a brilliant speech by Sean Astin towards the end, bringing to life the true emotional struggles these characters must go through in order to complete their task.
At the same time, the music, effects, and acting are just superb. You couldn't really have asked for better casting, or recruiting in these areas. So much so it's no surprise the sheer vast amount of awards the three films were nominated for. All the while all three films were done for near the same amount it cost to make films such as Transformers 2 and Avatar. A true masterpiece of the epic cinema, and an ode to what every book adaptation should be, breathtaking.
An amazing film from beginning to end, from one of the greatest trilogies and adaptations ever put to film. The Two Towers is everything a Tolkien adaptation should be, and more.
Darker, more coherent, and more complete, Two Towers takes full advantage of the grand world Tolkien created. While expanding on some things that were rather small in favor of bigger action scenes, Jackson pays careful attention to the characters, making sure each is dealt with in an appropriate amount of detail, in order to allow us to better understand them. All the while, tagged with the great fluid direction and storytelling abilities of Jackson, in order to make sure the audience is hooked throughout the conversations and fight scenes.
The actors seem far more comfortable with their characters as well (though the films were not shot in order), and the characters feel far better defined. We're introduced to only a handful of new characters, including the now infamous Gollum (Andy Serkis), which only adds to the fun of the film. As well, The Two Towers brings out the morality tale Lord of the Rings encompasses, with a brilliant speech by Sean Astin towards the end, bringing to life the true emotional struggles these characters must go through in order to complete their task.
At the same time, the music, effects, and acting are just superb. You couldn't really have asked for better casting, or recruiting in these areas. So much so it's no surprise the sheer vast amount of awards the three films were nominated for. All the while all three films were done for near the same amount it cost to make films such as Transformers 2 and Avatar. A true masterpiece of the epic cinema, and an ode to what every book adaptation should be, breathtaking.
An amazing film from beginning to end, from one of the greatest trilogies and adaptations ever put to film. The Two Towers is everything a Tolkien adaptation should be, and more.
5 better thoughts:
I agree entirely with your comments but I could not pick any one of the movies to be better than the others. I loved them all 3.
Your review is right on the money. Every time I revisit TTT, I'm overwhelmed by the excellence of the film. I do think it has been surpassed by TROTK in quality, scope and impact, but TTT has a great heart and is an incredible ride.
Great work on the blog...keep the fine insights coming!
I must admit that THE TWO TOWERS is my favourite LOTR movie.
Not only because it had the best story balance of all three, and the best scenes and visuals, but also because of Karl Urban who is one of my favourite actors. Too bad that Cate Blanchett doesn't have a huge part in this one, beside being the narrator.
Thanks for the comments everyone! I do love getting them :). I do agree Dez, Karl Urban's a good up and comer, needs some better film choices though. I don't think Chronicles of Riddick and Pathfinder are going to cut it, but Star Trek might just help him out.
I guess I'm the only one who liked PATHFINDER although I know it didn't do much for his career. :)
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