Film Review: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

In The Fellowship of the Ring, the film saga of the Lord of the Rings was kicked-off in an endearing and faithful way.  It meticulously established the groundwork for a cast of iconic heroes, settings with palpable folklore, and a grand journey that would stagger the imagination.  The adventure continues in The Two Towers, with all the same flair and attention to detail that was established before.  Only now, it's a return to familiar territory, and the film uses every opportunity to expand the narrative and present an even stronger fantasy experience.

Picking up where the first film let off, The Two Towers wastes no time in tracking each character's tangent and showing what happens next.  The film's opening, showing Gandalf confronting the monstrous Balrog, is an awe-inspiring sight as it is.  Then we continue to follow Frodo and Sam on their quest to Mordor, and it is touch-and-go for them as they evade enemy forces and consort with the villainous Gollum.  At the same time, the film tracks Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they trek into Rohan, to inevitably confront the threat of orc invasion head-on.  All these plot threads build up to a magnificent climax, including the Battle of Helm's Deep (a lengthy and awesome siege), the marching of the Ents (an imaginative and inspiring sequence), and the skirmishes of Osgiliath (providing the emotional climax to accentuate the action).  It is a consistently engaging film with plenty of awesome spectacle.

The story branches off into multiple directions with quite a lot of characters.  You'd think it would be hard to keep track of everything (a complaint that made Cloud Atlas so inaccessible to audiences), but this film somehow manages to juggle everything perfectly, giving each tangent just enough time so that it never fades far from memory.  It's easy to keep track of the characters and their movements across Middle-Earth, even with the addition of new characters, taut political drama, and even more folklore thrown in.  The characters remain as endearing as ever, and the plot is manipulated with expert precision.  Tolkein purists may be quick to point out the changes from the source material, which become more numerous in this film than in its predecessor, but the basics of the story remain intact.  Most changes are made to accommodate the story's events across the three films in the most presentable way.  While the film continues to utilize the classic epic-journey plot structure, it digs up some relevant themes concerning war, industrialization, and courage throughout.

As before, the film is crafted expertly, with excellent photography and editing.  Acting continues to impress from the whole cast; Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Elijah Wood, Sean Austin, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, Orlando Bloom, John Rhyes-Davies, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Liv Tyler, and Cate Blanchett all continue to inhabit their characters aptly.  Andy Serkis steals the spotlight, while Karl Urban, David Wenham, Brad Dourif, Bernard Hill, and Miranda Otto offer welcome additions to the cast.  The writing is great.  Locales are beautiful.  This production continues to use top-notch sets, props, costumes, and special effects.  Howard Shore's music score is still impressively magnificent.

The Two Towers is a thrilling continuation of the events laid forth in The Fellowship of the Ring, and it builds up to one impressive climax.  It's still a great story told with great style, and with good attention to depth and detail.  As strong of an experience as it is, it's still only building up to an even grander experience...

The Extended Cut of this film includes about 45 minutes of new scenes.  Some of it includes extended action and battle scenes, which are cool.  There's also a great flashback scene involving Faramir and Boromir.  There are also a bunch of really neat smaller scenes, many of which adapt specific scenes from the book, or offer more to the characters.  It is a really cool cut of the movie that's well worth seeing.

5/5 (Entertainment:  Perfect | Story:  Perfect | Film:  Perfect)