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Summary: The Two Towers revolutionizes the art of epic-making
Review: Be forewarned that there are no catching up for the first opening scene jumps straight to Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) engaged in a fierce tussle with the Balrog after plunging from a vertiginous cliff. The 3-hour long epic continues the saga from where The Fellowship of The Ring left off in the literary fantasy gem by J.R.R Tolkien; the second in the trilogy. And this movie succeeds the predecessor in every manner under Peter Jackson's direction to become a magnum opus of tremendous power, visual splendor and emotional core that will make Tolkien proud. Every moment in this majestic adventure sweeps you with its elegiac tone and dark suspense with the judicious use of astonishing CGI effects that you never thought could materialize in such supremacy. The fantasy tells of the journey hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) embarks to destroy The One Ring that tempts humanity into evil and Frodo becomes increasingly powerless to the attraction. Sam Gamgee (Sean Astin) is his sole companion as the rest of his motley gang is separated. Merry (Dominic Monaghen) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) captured by the Orcs, harrowingly escapes to Fangorn Forest. Aragon (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas Greenleaf (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli the dwarf (John Rhys-Davies) pursues relentlessly for the missing two and arrives at Rohan. It is amazing how these three paths interweaves with its own clarity to pave the road to the showdown at Helm's Deep where the people of Rohan under the rule of King Theoden (Bernard Hill) and niece Eowyn (Miranda Otto) battles against the 10,000 strong Uruk Hai cavalry. The Dark Lord Sauron has aligned forces with Saruman the White (Christopher Lee) to wipe out mankind and it is up to Aragon to bind Rohan and Gandor against the dark forces. The Two Towers is a full-fledged action adventure but also a deeply moving tale of freedom, massacre and enslavement. Peter Jackson's bold cinematic angles and close-ups effectively conveys personal intimacy and emotions besides the grandeur. In an unprecedented revolutionizing move, he employs evocative complexed digital creatures such as Gollum the elfin and Ents the ancient talking trees to relay subtly the devastating psychological effects of evil and ecological messages respectively. His ambitious work shot over 2 years in New Zealand and a bloating budget of 310 million has being rewarded fruitfully with increasing followers who are being enchanted by his interpretation of Middle Earth with lush greenery and rolling mountains as well as shadowly swamps that makes the period convincingly real. The gorgeous cinematography has replaced the explanation of the plot that hindered the first episode. It is no longer a tale of the conventional struggle between evil and good but also one of fraternity and gives one the conviction of the heroes's affirmation and belief. It is touchingly poignant as the allegory gains currency in the modern zeigeist of terrorism and defies categorization. Constantly riveting and exhilarating, Jackson's passion for the sprawling saga has turned it into a fragile objet d' art and a revolutionizing piece of epic work, accomplished in every sense.
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Summary: Outstanding! Better Than "The Fellowship!"
Review: The Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers is a great film. It is packed with a lot of action , fantasy , adventure , drama , and a little romance. It followed the author J.R.R. Tolkiens second book of The Lord Of The Rings in a very great way. The orcs , wargs , and the ringraiths riding on the fell beasts looked outstanding! Even the mumaks (oliphaunts) and ents looked outstanding! The battle scenes were very intense , especially the Batte Of Helms Deep. I cannot wait untill this film comes out on DVD! The Lord Of The Rings : The Two Towers is the best picture of 2002! Now that I have seen The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Two Towers I am waiting to see The Return Of The King. YOU MUST WATCH THIS GREAT MOVIE IF YOU ARE A LORD OF THE RINGS FAN!
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Summary: Oh, my, Peter Jackson et al have done it again!
Review: We just got home from seeing The Two Towers and oh! It is WONDERFUL! As a fan of The Lord of the Rings for about 35 years, I am still stunned at how authentic Peter Jackson and everyone associated with this trilogy have been able to make it. This one is as good or better than Fellowship if that's possible. I NEVER thought anyone would be able to do this profound and many-leveled, many-event, story justice but they have done it. Obviously they can't include everything that's in the books or everything exactly like the books BUT what they have done is convey the depth and feel of the epic - they have retained its very essence and why it is a masterpiece. We sat riveted for the entire approximately 3 hours. Riveted. What more can I say? Now I can't wait for the DVD to come out so I can watch it a zillion times like I did Fellowship and I REALLY can't wait for The Return of the King. Oh, it was stunning! Amazing!
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Summary: The Two Towers - Worth The Wait (spoilers)
Review: Have you spent much of the last year wondering about what to expect with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers? I have. The first film dug itself under my skin and became as precious to me as the Ring is to Gollum. Going for 364 days to see the next chapter has been grueling at times. But (sigh) here I am. (Begin Spoilers) The film picks up with a flashback to Gandalf battling the Balrog on the bridge of Khazad-Dum. We see it all over, except we see more of Gandalf's fall as he continues to fight the Balrog. Frodo jerks awake suddenly, and we see we have been watching a dream. The film wastes no time drawing the audience in. Fans of the first film will certainly love this one, probably equally, maybe better. The tone is a bit different, as the tone of the book was different than that of the first. There are more discrepancies in the story here than there were in 'Fellowship,' and more liberties taken as a result. Does this hurt the film? Not at all, as long as you're not a Tolkien purist. The cast is once again great, with John Rhys Davies' Gimli having more to do, as well as his turn as the voice of Treebeard adding charm to the CG character. Speaking of CG characters, Gollum is very impressive. He's obviously CG-based, but the motion capture of actor Andy Serkis, as well as his grovelly voice, help to make a sympathetic character. Karl Urban (Eomer), Bernard Hill (Theoden), Miranda Otto (Eowyn), Brad Dourif (Wormtongue), and David Wyndham (Faramir) are all approproately cast, with Hill and Otto giving the strongest performances among the newcomers. Howard Shore's score is great, once again hitting in all the right places, and fitting the grand scale of the movie. The Helm's Deep sequence is stunning, but there is much more to love in this film. The re-introduction of Gandalf is a nicely done moment, as is Sean Astin's speech as Sam near the end. The movie ends on an even bigger tease than the end of FOTR... leaving us salivating for Return of the King. (End spoilers) Is it perfect? No. Will I see it again ASAP? Yes! Hurry up that extended DVD!!!!!
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Summary: Midnight Showing
Review: Alrighty.. I was one of those peeps that was lucky enough to have a midnight showing of the Two Towers in my area.. And all I can say is this.. AWESOME!!!!!!! I am not going to give any spoilers away here so if that is what you are looking for please see the other posting with spoilers.. Instead.. I am going to give you a short rundown of the parts I found wonderfull.. 1) The movie began with a bang.. By showing us what happened to our beloved wizard as he feel down the hole.. I found myself cheering.. 2) The acting was again superb! The director again showed his eye for understanding this Middle Earth. 3) The CGI.. Ahh the CGI.. It was awesome!!! Specially the big battle which is all CGI but, you would swear that it was not.. And then there is Gollum.. Being a CGI creature you would thing that they would not pan to him to much but, instead he is very prolific in this movie and very.. very.. well done.. 4) The three subplots will just blow your mind away.. (well there are actually more then three but, you count them.. 5) The musical score is just fantastic!! And there is my list.. If I may say soo this movie was (if possible) better then the first movie! Wonder what they will do in the third and final movie?
Rating:
Summary: Better than "Fellowship"
Review: Like all of us, I've been looking forward to the second installment of Peter Jackson's _Lord of the Rings_ trilogy for a year now. _The Two Towers_ has always been my favourite of the original trilogy. Well, I'm happy to say the _The Two Towers_, the movie met and exceeded my expectations in nearly every respect. Taking up where FoTR left off, "Towers" follows the now sundered members of the Fellowship on their disparate paths. Frodo and Sam are heading for Mordor, hooking up along the way with Gollum, who agrees to guide them. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli pursue the Orcs who have captured Merry and Pippin, eventually coming to Rohan where they are caught up in that country's struggle against Saruman. Merry and Pippin come through a series of perils to the forest of Fangorn, where they meet Treebeard the Ent. By the end of the movie, everyone will have fought some kind of battle, either personal or monumental, against overwhelming odds. Overall, _The Two Towers_ is even truer to the original than was FoTR. Jackson takes a lot of time to go through this important part of the trilogy, with the result that he's only about 2/3 of the way through the book by the end. I didn't mind this at all. IN fact, I thought the slower pace was a good juxtaposition with the intensity of many of the events and the transitions seemed much less hectic than they were in FoTR. I enjoyed the added material, particularly the extra Rohan scenes that set up the situation and the characters. Many places in this movie, Jackson shows us things that are only told or alluded to in the book, and it works very well. Once again the acting was great, both from the old characters and the new. I loved the casting of Miranda Otto as Eowyn. Brad Dourif shone as Grima Wormtongue, a character I always found somewhat flat in the books, and Bernard Hill as Theoden was also great. I can't wait to see more of Eomer -- he ruled every scene he was in. The CG effects were amazing. I loved the Ents, who were a perfect combination of treeishness and bipedal humanoid. But the real star goes to Gollum, a character so real that I could hardly believe he...uh...wasn't real. The portrayal of his struggle between his "Slinker" and "Stinker" halves was incredibly well done -- at risk of sacrilege I would say even better than in the books. And the way the realtionship and similarities between him and Frodo were played up was a good touch. There were several departures from the book but only one that really bothered me (and bothered everyone who was at the midnight show I went to): What they did to Faramir was just wrong and annoying. I think maybe I have some idea why they did it, but, well, they just shouldn't have. Other than that, the only flaw in this movie was that for about the first third of it much of the dialogue was very hard to understand, particularly the growly effects voices. I'll need to see "Towers" again (as if I wouldn't anyway) just to pick up what I missed the first time around. _The Two Towers_ is quite long -- a little over three hours by my clock -- but it never suffers from drag. I enjoyed every minute (Except the Faramir bits). This is one great movie! I'm counting the minutes until the DVD comes out and the days until _Return of the King_!
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Summary: Better than I expected! Worth the Money. Excellent Movie.
Review: If you didn't like the first movie then don't go, because you won't like this movie. I was worried because some reviewers were trashing this movie on television. I went with a friend and watched the movie at the Mall of Georgia on Dec. 17 11:59pm. Overall, I thought the movie was really good and actually better than the prequel, in my opinion. There is a lot of action and really cool battle scenes. They have a lot of humor to relieve some of the tension. This movie is pretty long (3 hours). Typically, I don't get moved (swept up) by the movie. The sound and music in the movie is awesome. The special effects, acting, etc. are excellent. Contrary to rumors, the movie doesn't drag or lag action! The movie has a pretty fast pace. NOTE I'M NOT A FANATIC FOR LOTR SERIES. Even if you have read the book, the movie will be entertaining and different but still true to books. What more could you ask for? By the way, the books are excellent. Surprise, Surprise! They are well written. The only problem is all the names and etc. can bog you down. Back to the movie, the only controversial thing will about the trees. I'm nuetral on them. They didn't make or break it, so the movie was still great despite them. It works out better in a book than a movie. Anyways, it a great movie. It's worth the admission price alone. My friend just watched both of them yesterday, and he said that he like them both and wanted to watch the third installment. Hope that helps.
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Summary: The Epic Continues
Review: I have just returned from a 12:01 am first screening of Peter Jackson's second installment in the Lord of the Rings Saga. So how was it? It is clear we are in the midst of a milestone of cinema. The Two Towers is every bit as stunning, overwhelming, moving and spectacular as its predecessor -- while being a completely different movie altogether. FOTR was an adventure movie infused with a sense of wonder and awe. It's major theme was loyalty. The Two Towers is a war epic with a much darker and more frantic tone. If there is a theme, it is about courage and hope in the face of overwhelming evil. (very minor spoilers ahead) We start off right where FOTR left off -- the Fellowship scattered. Merry and Pippin have been abducted by Orcs. Gimli, Aragorn and Legolas are persuing. Their journey puts them in the path of Saruman, who is massing an army at his fortress to attack the nation of Rohan -- one of the powers on the side of good. But Rohan's king Theoden is old and sick and can not resist. Meanwhile, Sam and Frodo continue their quest to destroy the Ring of Power with an unexpected ally -- Gollum, the pathetic creature that once owned the Ring for 500 years. This is movie-making the way it should be -- grand, majestic, almost monstrous in its power. The vistas are grand, the characters strong, the visuals stunning, the direction crisp, the dialogue splendid. There's not a single bad line or bad scene. And there are many that simply overpower the viewer. I'm going to need to see this a second and third time just to take everything in. Highlights? The final 45 minutes, which feature three simultaneous battles, makes Star Wars 2 look like a kid's video game. The character of Theoden, King of Rohan, is splendily realized in the script as a man who yearns for glory while fearing he is too old to achieve it. He is magnificently acted by Bernard Hill. But the highlight of this movie is Gollum -- a creature corrupted and twisted by the Ring, his psych split down the middle with both love and hatred for it. In him, you see the creature Frodo might one day become. His CG character is amazingly realized and powerfully acted by Andy Serkis -- who deserves an academy award for his portrayal. As my girlfriend said: This is Gollum's movie. My principle objection to the movie? It's too short. It is rushed. I can see another Special Edition coming. And it's not followed immediately by Return of the King. For those of you have read the book, the movie parts significantly from the text but not in any objectionable way and not in any manner that alters the storyline. It ends a few chapters before the book. And Tolkien's vision is amazing realized. I thought that the Ents would be comical. Instead, they looked amazing. Through skillful combination of CGI, models and bluescreen work, this movie is a seamless and perfect rendering of middle Earth.
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Summary: Pay offs a-plenty
Review: Fun and action packed. True Tolkein fans beware... as with the first movie, several things from the story are excluded (to be expected) however, a few major things are added... curious decicsions on Jackson's part. If one can forgive the liberties taken by the creative team, then you will truly enjoy this movie (some will NOT forgive... to each their own).
Legolas fans will rejoice, however Gimli fans may be disappointed at his "demotion" to comic relief. Fans of the book will know that he is a much more competent warrior than the movie portrays. Still, he does have the best comic lines in the movie. It might have been a good idea to reveal that he actually WINS that little competition he has with Legolas. Again, a little forgiveness on behalf of the audience will prevent this from ruining the movie in a grand sense.
Gollum is well done, as are the Ents. The story of the ring kind of takes a back seat to the battle at Helm's Deep, however that is probably more Tolkein's design.
Lots and lots of stand-up-and-cheer moments... mostly in the later half of the movie. The Eowyn-Aragorn-Arwen triangle adds rich drama on an emotional level, even though the chemistry has been tweaked somewhat.
5 stars for making a fantastic follow-up to a fantastic "Fellowship"
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Summary: Too big a show for Golumn to steal. A metaphor.
Review: I attended a midnight showing of the Two Towers last night and found that it was worth the night without sleep. This movie doesn't need a lot of description. Quality is consistant from the last picture, which is to be expected since they were all made at once. The Graphics were very good. The special effects awsome (love those ents) The sound quality in the theater was poor, (of course it could just be that I was tired) but I'll see it again with the kids and judge it properly then. Golumn does his best to steal the show. The Character is great and is acted well. I say Acted because Andy Serkis voice and movements that the graphics were put over were vital to the character. I tended to feel more and more sorry for the character, particularly since Frodo was moving in the same direction. Great Job by wood. I think the decision to make Gimli a comic character hurt and I would have liked to see more of the interplay between him and Legolas. (perhaps in the extended version) It was the films only weakness. Easily the best movie of the year. It is almost high art. The Godfather is high art, Star Wars is not, however this movie moves toward that direction. The final movie will confirm it. The story is rife with symbols of the modern earth shaking events taking place now. Those who believe in coincidence and who follow current events must be amazed. I don't belive in coincidence so I am not. From the rising of the Ents to the turning of Théoden, (war is upon you if you like it or not)the parallels are astounding. Many will miss it, some will do their best to ignore it but the message of these two (soon to be three) movies at this time, speaks to an age the message it needs to hear. The makers and the actors deny this, but they are ring bearers like it or no.
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