The Lord Of The Rings/The Two Towers - Movie Review

Critics Score - 10 of 10

General Audience Score - 10 of 10

After the release of The Lord Of The Rings The Fellowship Of The Ring, while the film went on to immediate financial success and critical acclaim, New Line cinema knew they had two more gold mines left of their hands. Dropping into theatres one year later, Dec. 18, 2022, LOTR The Two Towers rolled in and scored almost a billion dollars at the worldwide box office and was nominated for six academy awards of which it won two. Although the film suffers slightly from Peter Jackson’s screenplay being adjusted in several ways from the original book, there can be no mistaking that The Two Towers was an undeniable accomplishment in the history of cinema. Personally, I would rank the trilogy in the order of Fellowship #1, King #2 and then Towers #3, but these are all masterpieces of film, each one in their own right. Whether you loved the books or not, whether your an average moviegoer or hardcore cinephile, there’s an incredible world of wonders awaiting you just beyond LOTR’s The Two Towers. 

SYNOPSIS - Our journey back to middle earth opens with what has now become a classic piece of original score work, the trilogies theme plays as we get sweeping camera shots of snow covered mountain peaks. We dive into the mountains and the audio cues begin a flashback to Gandalf’s (Ian McKellen) tiff with a Balrog, which we first witnessed in The Fellowship. But after he whispers “Fly you fools”, and falls into the depths of the Mines of Moria, The Two Towers takes us on the alternate ride of the Gandalf/Balrog cage match as they fall from the bridge. As the tumbling duo fall into a lake under the mountain and as they splash into the water, Frodo (Elijah Wood) startles awake with Sam (Sean Astin) beside him, he was having a bad dream, or was he? Last we left the hobbits in The Fellowship, Boromir (Sean Bean) had tried to take the one ring from Frodo, so he and Samwise had taken off on their own to try and carry the ring into Mordor, to cast it into the fires of Mount Doom. But as they traverse some rocky lasndsape that would challenge even some of the most experienced rock climbers, they encounter the creature Gollum (Andy Serkis). Being lost in the rocky and rugged terrain, the two hobbits capture and enslave Gollum to help lead them through.

Orca had carried off the other two hobbits at the end of The Fellowship, but the trio of the man Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and dwarf Gimli (John Ryes-Davies) are in hot pursuit of the squadron of elite Uruk-hai. The Two Towers covers a lot of ground, I cannot possibly hope to scratch the surface of it here in this review. But suffice it to say, there are some chess piece maneuvering by the forces for good and evil in this film and a spectacular battle that rages for almost forty-five minutes and lays the groundwork for the final installment of the trilogy. This film is as epic as they come.

In virtually every way a film can be, The Two Towers was a technical marvel. The groundbreaking motion capturing technology used to create the creature Gollum with Andy Serkis providing the voice and movements, was on the cutting edge of what was technologically available at the time and won the Oscar for Visual Effects. The score by Howard Shore, that follows in the footsteps of the Oscar winning Fellowship score, is incredible work and truly a masterpiece of composing. The cast is great, all these actors are able to bring these characters to life with all their distinctive characteristics in an almost unbelievable way, the ensemble is truly an all-timer. The pacing and story flows perfectly well despite an almost three hour runtime and builds an amazing amount of momentum heading into the third act and final battle. The one gripe I’d offer is with the screenplay that I mentioned at the outset and it’s deviation from the source material. I found the added drama to be confusing to the story progression and unnecessary. But like I said, there’s so much to love about this movie, my minor quibble with some changes from the books are minor inconveniences in what is otherwise a part of what I consider the greatest trilogy of films ever created.

SUMMARY - The Two Towers is my personal weakest link of Jackson’s trilogy of adaptations simply because of it’s deviation from the books and the melodrama it feels it must inject to punch up the story. Hence the film flirts with a 9.9 at times, but the Helm’s Deep battle is a miracle of cinema and anything less than a perfect 10 of 10 score is simply not something this film critic is willing to concede.