Review 11: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Better than the The Fellowship of the Ring and great lead up to The Return of the King,

Based on the second volume in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien, Sauron's forces increase. His allies grow. The Ringwraiths return in an even more frightening form. Saruman's (Christopher Lee) army of Uruk Hai is ready to launch an assault against Aragorn (Vigo Mortensen) and the people of Rohan. Yet, the Fellowship is broken and Boromir is dead. For the little hope that is left, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) march on into Mordor, unprotected with the aid of the trecherous Gollum (Andy Serkis). A number of new allies join with Aragorn, Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Pippin (Dominic Monaghan) and Merry (Billy Boyd).
And they must defend Rohan and attack Isengard. Yet, while all this is going on, Sauron's troops mass toward the City of Gondor, for the War of the Ring is about to begin.

The plot is great, it builds upon the foundation set by its predecessor, expands the world

By part two, we are officially at war. Middle-Earth has become a much darker more dangerous place as director Peter Jackson beautifully illustrates to us in the opening with

adds on to the phenomenon trilogy and takes our characters to new emotional heights because there really is a war coming and most of our characters take desperate messures to prepeare for it.

New to the trilogy are some fresh characters Theoden (Bernard Hill) the King of Rohan who has fallen under Saruman's magic, his niece Eowyn (Miranda Otto), his nephew Eomer (Karl Urban) who has been exiled, Faramir (David Wenham), Boromir's brother who's also the Prince of the Stewards of Gondor and the captain of the Ithilien Rangers as well as Gollum who takes centre stage

Once again the theme of Fate and Free will is prominent in the narrative of The Two Towers: The decision Frodo and Sam make to spare Gollum can be interpreted either way and it's clear that the impact of their decision will be profound.

The theme of Power and Temptation also runs deep in The Two Towers: Gollum is the perfect example of someone who has been corrupted by the One Ring in how he behaves and speaks in hisses and whines.
Faramir also rejects the ring

Addiction: The influence of the One Ring has also been compared to drug addiction. Especially Gollum, who shows many traits of an addict like withdrawing himself and becoming suspicious and angry at anyone. But even Bilbo and Frodo have been found to exhibit signs of an essential addiction to the One Ring.

Director Peter Jackson's direction is simply splendidly unobtrusive, the cinematography is beautiful and captures the beauty and danger of Middle Earth, the production design is marvellous, the score by Howard Shore is monumental, the makeup is rich and beautifully detailed, the special effects are the costumes are majestic, sound effects are all great and precise. There's some really good action in this film and lots of chill, brutality and wipe outs as well.

The acting is great once again: Particularly Elijah Wood and Viggo Mortensen who bring a lot of depth to their characters as they are forced to take these berderns and Andy Serkis makes a great villain and the rest of the cast is excellent.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is a fantastic addition to the impossible trilogy and a perfect lead up to The Return of the King, 5/5

The Anonymous Critic