|
Overview
Hobbit Frodo Baggins and his tightly knit fellowship find
themselves split up across the land as they continue their
adventure to destroy the Ring. While the fellowship seeks to
complete their quest, the Dark Lord Sauron tightens his grasp
on all of Middle-earth, decimating villages and anything else
that gets in his way. If you liked the battle scenes of
Braveheart, you’ll have found a movie with even better battle
scenes in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Review
As expected, The Two Towers starts where The Fellowship of the
Ring left off and even flashes back a bit to give us a brief
refresher. The fellowship is scattered across the land:
Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) push on after
being split up from the fellowship to Mordor, where they are
to destroy the Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. They are in
despair when they are lost, walking for hours, knowing where
they need to get to, but not how to get there. They seem to
fall into a bit of luck when they are rudely introduced to
Gollum, the anorexic looking creature that owned the Ring
prior to Bilbo, Frodo’s uncle, happening upon it. Neither of
the Hobbits trust Gollum at first, but Frodo gains a respect
and liking for him. Frodo knows that Gollum understands the
pain he deals with when it comes to the Ring, and is
sympathetic to him. Sam doesn’t trust him at all, constantly
calling into question his motives.
Hobbits Merry and Pippen (played by Dominic Monaghan and Billy
Boyd, respectively) have been captured by the orc army called
the Uruk-Hai, which is led by Gandalf’s evil nemesis Saruman.
They do not know where they are going, only that if they do
not get free they are sure to die a horrible death. Saruman is
delighted, thinking one of them could be the one with the
Ring. Eventually, Merry and Pippen are befriended by an
ancient tree of the race called the Ents, who can walk, talk,
and is extremely old. Their new friend Treebeard and his race
were thought to have been myths and legend, but in fact, they
are very real. Merry and Pippen face the enormous task of
trying to convince Treebeard to aid them in the war against
Saruman and lord Sauron.
Not far behind, Legolas the elf (played by Orlando Bloom),
Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), and our little dwarf friend, Gimli
(John Rhys-Davies), form their own little fellowship as they
move at an extremely quick pace in order to save Merry and
Pippen. As they move hastily to save their little friends,
they get sidetracked and aid in a battle to preserve the
kingdom of Rohan as the giant orc army approaches. The kingdom
of Rohan is relocated to Helm’s Deep, a sanctuary for the
kingdom that has withstood many great wars and battles, and
more importantly, has never failed the people of Rohan. They
will need all the help they can get, because this battle
features 10,000 nasty beasts versus 300 men. It sounds like
horrible odds, but you absolutely must watch the entire
battle.
Acting
Because all of the movies were shot all at the same time, it
was extremely easy to retain all of the cast members from The
Fellowship of the Ring.
Elijah Wood is fantastic again in the sequel, turning from a
character that tends to be sweet, innocent, and questioning,
into someone that has some gusto and edge to him. You become
impressed very quickly with how grownup Wood seems. My
favorite character’s development is Sean Astin’s, who plays
Sam. He goes from a loyal companion who listens to everything
Frodo says, will interject here and there, but doesn’t really
stand up for himself, to a strong willed loyal friend who
constantly shows Frodo how much he needs him. Orlando Bloom is
my favorite character in the movie, a strong elf both mentally
and physically that you have complete faith in. He could fight
100 orcs and you would not waver in your assessment of
thinking there was no way he could lose. The same could be
said for Viggo Mortensen’s character, Aragorn, who shows the
audience he is still the leader of the warriors, while at the
same time is also someone that can be torn by two women. John
Rhys-Davies plays the hysterical little dwarf Gimli
brilliantly once again. Just about every time he spoke the
whole audience was in tears from laughing so hard. He also
shows a bit of his soft side later in the movie. Ian McKellen
isn’t in Towers as much as he was in LOTR, but he makes
excellent use of his time and is constantly surprising us with
what he comes up with next.
There were a few new main characters that were not in The
Fellowship of the Ring, and all of them were very strong in
this film. Mirando Otto plays Eowyn, a hearty brave Rohan
princess who begins to fall for Aragorn as the war begins. She
remains strong from the beginning of the film until the
credits and leaves you wondering what she has in store for you
in the final chapter of this riveting story. Another character
that has a limited, but important role is played by Brad
Dourif, who is Grima Wormtongue, who does Saruman’s bidding
from afar, in the kingdom of Rohan as Theodan’s twisted
advisor. By far, the best addition is Gollum, played by Andy
Serkis. Serkis makes this movie what it is, by dressing up in
a white spandex suit and jumping around like an acrobat, so
that after he is done, the graphical animators could put into
place the animated Gollum. This movie is worth going to just
for seeing him.
Directing
Peter Jackson has outdone himself once again. Many people try
to compare this film and the previous, but to do so would be
an injustice. They both have to different messages and are
part of a much bigger story. After The Return of the King
comes out in theaters next Christmas and onto DVD, I will be
watching all three of them back to back to back to get the
full experience. Over 9 hours of Tolkien’s world can sound
overbearing and even insane, but I think it will be quite an
experience. Some have done that with the Star Wars films and
have said it was a good experience, but they do not start off
where the other one finished. That is what sets these films
apart from the cult-driven Star Wars flicks. The Two Towers is
very dark, very mysterious and clouded.
The best thing Peter Jackson has ever done was film all three
films at once, something that has never been done before, but
I think it was the right thing. You have actors that won’t age
as much, which intertwines with the concept of the movies
beginning where the other left off. Jackson is a mastermind,
transforming New Zealand into Tolkien’s realm very
convincingly. I saw a special that showed Jackson and his crew
filming the riverbed scene where Gollum chases down a fish and
catches it. The interesting nugget here is that it was filmed
in the dead of winter over there (which is in June) and there
was snow all over the riverbed and the banks, as well as the
rocks. The crew had only hours to use firehoses and other
gadgets to rid the area of snow so that they could film.
Absolutely fantastic. The special effects of the walking trees
and Gollum where phenomenal.
Once again, Jackson finds time to slip in
a love scene with Aragorn and Arwen (Liv Tyler). If
you’ve read the book, you would know that this is not in the
story, rather in the appendix where they explain other tidbits
that are interesting, but didn’t impact the story a whole lot.
The battle of Helm’s Deep should easily garner the best
battle/war/fight scene of all time, in any movie. This has
previously been given to Braveheart, and as many times as I’ve
seen Braveheart and the fact that I love it so much, the
Helm’s Deep battle is incredible. Words cannot do justice to
how truly awesome it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jackson
gets Best Director, and The Two Towers goes on to win a
multitude of Oscars.
Final Thoughts
Diehard Tolkien fans will be in heaven with this one,
perfectly bringing to the screen what is described in the
classic novel. At the same time, there are many things in it
for people that are new to Tolkien and his world. If you loved
the drama, buildup, and fighting in The Fellowship of the
Ring, you’ll be amazed that Peter Jackson and his cast could
outdo themselves. This one has Oscar written all over it.
HYNDSY Rating:
4.5 out of 5 Planets
Talk about
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers>>
|
Game News
