Given that the Lord of the Rings films were all shot together and Fellowship had been such a success, it was natural that much of the praise levied at the first film would carry over - stunning production design and locations which bring Middle Earth to life in wonderful detail, another wonderful score from Shore and a cast that fit into their roles perfectly. However, there are some distinct changes as the story structure demands that the audience follow three distinct storyline, new characters are introduced and the nature of a middle film in a trilogy leaves The Two Towers with no beginning or ending. Consequently, after a barnstorming opening that remind the audience of events from Fellowship, the pace of the film suffers as Jackson struggles to seamlessly continue the disparate elements of the plot and reintroduce his characters as well as bring in new ones (indeed this is actually done more successfully in the theatrical version than the extended one which still contains wonderful extra scenes throughout but does affect the pace far more so than Fellowship). It is only a short lived issue however.

Jackson’s solution to the lack of a story ending, like with Fellowship, is to weave a thematic thread through his story that is brought to a head in the finale with a beautiful speech from Sean Astin and rather than leave the film on a cliffhanger, ends on a natural resting point in the story. Thus the melancholic feel of a world in decay and on the brink of change is much more to the fore here as the mood turns distinctly grim and war threatens. From Osgiliath to Rohan to the Dead Marshes, the filmmakers paint a picture of once proud and triumphant societies now in decline and ruin after years of stagnation. This permeates the characters as the filmmakers explore their fears and struggles to deal them. Gollum is rightly celebrated as a wonderful addition to the story, being far more than simply an impressive visual effect as the true nature of the One Ring’s corrosive influence is explored, but equally impressive is Bernard Hill as Theoden, riddled with doubt and uncertainly, but no less authoritative as a leader.

If this all sounds a little too depressing, it is to Jackson’s credit that it never feels like this. Humour and action help to punctuate the tone and the film builds up to stunning finale that remains hugely impressive. Return of the King’s action sequences may well up the ante in terms of scope, but Towers’ centrepiece battle for Helm’s Deep feels more grounded and gruelling for the characters, culminating in a beautifully realised last stand. Equally, the storyline involving Merry and Pippin had the potential for ridicule, but the filmmakers initially play up the comical aspects and win over the audience to Treebeard and the Ents, which allows Jackson to integrate the theme of nature fighting back much more successfully.

There are some missteps - as well as the pacing problems at the beginning, Frodo’s encounter with Faramir doesn’t always ring true. Wenham is perfectly cast as Boromir’s brother, but his character arc and development feels disjointed and rushed and whilst there is an improvement in the extended edition, the resolution to his arc here feels contrived simply to move the story on. The less said about Galadriel’s forced inclusion, the better!!

This is still stunning filmmaking though and whilst the flaws are not quite as easily overlooked as with Fellowship, they do little to impact what is another impressive entry to the Middle Earth saga.

[7.8/10] *Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* is a whole season of television jammed to fit into a single three-hour movie. There’s so many, mostly disconnected bits of the story that happen at a remove from one another. *Fellowship of the Ring* has its own issues, but they tend to veer more toward a film that feels like it plays out on rails, with the good guy meeting and assembling and meeting one another on a pre-set path whether there’s room in the plot for it or time for the audience to care about each new face.

*The Two Towers*, by contrast, tries to combat that problem by making an *Empire Strikes Back*-style move for the sequel, splitting up the central teams into various side quests. Frodo and Sam firmly encounter Gollum (and his unique personality), and then run into Faramir, Boromir’s brother, whose men are prowling the plain. The Hobbit B-team escape their Orc captors and find refuge in the Ents, walking trees on the fence of interfering in the world of men. And the alliance of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli initially set out to rescue the B-team hobbits, but find themselves in Rohan, another free city of men, and help defend the kingdom and his people against Saruman’s approaching army.

That’s all before you get into Gollum’s recurring moral dilemma, and a love triangle between Aragorn, his immortal Elf crush, and some princess he’s making goo goo eyes at, and before…you know…Gandalf freaking coming back to life.

Suffice it to say, there is *a lot* going on in *The Two Towers* and Peter Jackson and company are not quite able to get the pacing and editing and structure of the movie right to make so much incident and character packed into these events just right. Battle reaching a crescendo feature cuts to deliberately slow-talking trees debating the finer point of military intervention. Otherwise triumphant or crestfallen moments are interspersed with dreamland dalliances between Arwen and her human squeeze. The introductions and deaths of characters who basically walk on the screen, give two lines, and then must be treated with the utmost importance for reasons unknown is still a Middle Earth malady here.

But man, that battle. I’d go so far as to say that in the nearly twenty years the Battle of Helm’s Deep burst onto the silver screen, it’s been topped. Several *Game of Thrones* skirmishes, other cinematic war epics, and scads of *LotR* imitators have built on this form, with varying degrees of success. Still, there’s just something about the epic set piece at the heart of *The Two Towers* that sets it apart, both in how it pioneered some of the approaches that soon became the standard, and in how it includes so many little touches and character moments to make this more than a mutual blast of roaring swords and screeching steels.

We get two Big Damn Hero moments to give the battle some structure, with Elrond’s Elf crew coming to aid at the last minute an unleashing those elven arrows on the advancing Uruk-hai so that the Rohan women and children stand a chance. And if that’s not enough, Gandalf the White (having survived his encounter with the Balrog with a mere bump on the noggin’ and a spiffy new wardrobe change) frees the King from Saruman’s spell and brings their loyal men from far flung places to help defend the homeland. More than the raw spectacle of that seminal battle, the character touches – Gimli hugging a thought-dead Aragorn, the two little kids we barely met ending up safe, the King’s doubts over whether this is the right course and eventually throwing himself in the fray – that make it more than the sum of its parts.

But they’re damn good parts, though! The prospect of a war on two fronts is an appropriately ominous one, especially with the franchise’s would-be narrators giving high-fantasy color commentary to that effect. Still, whether it’s legitimate medieval military tactics or not, the Uruk-Hai throwing up their ladder and barging their way through the gate while the Rohan alliance tries to stall their climbers and brace the door is a thrilling bit of editing and production design. The controlled chaos of those moments, these two heaving bodies of people working against one another, bear out in what is arguably the franchise’s most iconic and imitated set piece.

*The Two Towers* just spends a lot of time to get there, and not all of those side quests are feeding into or building to that moment later in the film. The back-up Hobbit squad convincing the Ents that this is their war too leads to some other neat production moments. The Ents look and move in a distinctive fashion, and their stepping in to help Gondor will surely count for something. But a great deal of Merri and Pippin wandering through the forest with them feels like killing time before they’re needed, however slightly, for the final battle.

The same goes for the Aragorn/Arwen/Eowyn love triangle that pretty much sprung out of nowhere. Aragorn is really a weak link here. While in *Fellowship*, he could at least emerge from the shadows and prove himself a noble, valuable ally with the royal connections that could one day matter, here, is the generic fantasy hero guy, shouting orders and slashing swords as needed. Given that focus, it’s more than a little awkward when the movie cuts away from the proceedings to depict him struggle with his shared promise to Arwen and the smile from this random chick he just met.

At least it ties into one of the overarching themes of the film – how this is a challenge that prevents all these disparate groups from simply retreating to their otherwise unbothered homes and just letting things play out. This is a threat to all of them – Sauron’s black army – and it requires disparate groups with long histories to set them aside and join together to fight a foe who poses an existentialist threat against all of them. There’s a lizard brain joy when old friend or enemies turned allies show up in a time of need, and *The Two Towers* plays that for all it’s worth.

It also related to the idea of our connections with people, the way we can see ourselves in others, as both our best and worst selves, and most struggle to bring out the best while repelling the worst. That’s most notable in the Gollum-centric parts of the movie, where Samwise continues to be skeptical of their grotesque fellow-traveler, while Frodo, knowing first-hand what The Ring does to a person, has empathy for the wretched creature, and the kindness he extends helps Gollum make the first progress he’s made in forever.

It’s ginger progress, that causes Gollum self-back and forths about the nature of what he really is, his guilt, his possibility to be more. Andy Serkis and his team put in the best performance of the movie despite the CGI limitations, managing to show the piteousness of Gollum, his sympathetic qualities, and also the duality of him, the ways in which he is like an addict who means well and speaks honestly, but whose desire for the thing he cannot have makes him dangerous. It’s a fine line to walk, but *The Two Towers* walks it while showing how Frodo has to believe, for his own sake, that there’s hope Gollum can come back from this.

Samwise delivers that message in the best speech of a speech-loaded film. This is the middle chapter of the *Lord of the Rings* -- the one between the thrill of introduction and the catharsis of conclusion, where stories typically have to continue setting the table for the finale and show our heroes at their lowest point. Sam recognizes this as a lowest point, with so many of them split up, diminished, or dead. But he also recognizes the hope in that they’ve gotten this far, that they’re come together, that there’s still the chance for victory despite the long odds stacked against them. *The Two Towers* spends a great deal of time digging around with those new threats and depositing in new characters without enough time to really give them any shading beyond high fantasy pronouncements. But it delivers the *Lord of the Rings*’s greatest battles and gives us reason to hope through our heroes’ camaraderie and measured successes, even in the midst of the dark times and defeats.

After watching the first movie, I genuinely thought I'd rewatched this trilogy to truly understand it too late (I watched it as a child but always felt like it was a movie for adults with its serious tone, so I was never quite attached to it). The first movie showed me the reason why LotR was so often the point of comparison whenever a new high fantasy series came out. But 2 decades later, having seen so many films and shows somewhat inspired by LotR's ambitiousness, I was honestly... a bit whelmed.

But this movie... damn.

Given more time to get to know them somewhat, the characters have become a bit more likeable (though I understand that it would have been hard to form an attachment to them with just the first movie, which had a lot of introduction to do). I also really liked the way this film handled the split narratives without taking away anything.

Probably what I loved most about this was the introduction to more of this world's lore. Now I'm tempted to rewatch the first movie with this newfound appreciation for it (I most likely will after the third movie). It makes me wish I still had the time and patience to read books because I'd love to read the series just to delve deeper into this rich universe. Might be time to finally dust off that old copy of The Hobbit lying around here somewhere…

Also, for a long time, (I avoided spoilers and they weren't really abundant) I genuinely thought this was about Frodo gaining control over the ring. I now realize that it's really just about this high fantasy world, an impending war against 1 dude (who's really just empowered by evil Dumbledore at this point), and a host of races selfishly trying to gain control of The Ring. Well. It's mostly just been Men at this point, go figure.

And what an edge-of-the-seat battle! [spoiler]I went from being so sure that the Ents would show up to turn the tide, but then they didn't and I thought the battle really was unwinnable massacre, then the elves arrived and provided some hope (even for viewers like me who hadn't read the books, I assume), but then they were still massacred, and at that point, I figured it truly was done, with such heavy losses made more tragic by the scenes leading up to it. And then... sunrise![/spoiler] Damn, a rollercoaster.

Also… poor Gollum?

I might not have enjoyed it as much as the first film, but 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' is still a terrific film no doubt.

Visually it still looks superb, I really do love the look of these films so far. The main plot is engaging and very interesting, while things like the costumes et al. remain at a high level. There is also top action, including some noteworthy battle sequences.

There are, though, a few bits I found less great - still very good in the grand overall scheme, but just comparably with the 2001 release. I found the pacing to be slightly off in moments, while a few of the new cast members didn't connect to me - e.g. Bernard Hill. The side story, meanwhile, with Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan didn't interest me at all... they spend too much of the run time just walking through a forest.

Elijah Wood remains good though. I did enjoy seeing the journey of Frodo and Sam (Sean Astin). Andy Serkis also gets more screen time with that aforementioned duo as Gollum, which is most definitely only a major positive - a fun character! Any scene with those three = outstanding.

Overall, as noted, it is still an excellent film. One very much worthy of following 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring', despite a few 'issues' I have with it.

Peter Jackson has always maintained that The Two Towers is "the second act" of his epic undertaking, and perhaps the true greatness of the middle chapter will only be clear when viewed in context. As a stand-alone film, however, The Two Towers is not quite as good as Fellowship. (Nor, indeed, does it extend the universe or deepen the relationships in the manner of The Empire Strikes Back.) That it still merits the full five stars is merely an indication of how high the benchmark has been set.

Picking up pretty much where Fellowship left off, this is a considerably darker film, with Frodo (Wood) falling further under the influence of the Ring (giving rise to some seriously spooky hallucinations), while Saruman (Christopher Lee) wreaks even more havoc. There's also the first appearance of Saruman's spy, the sinister Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), and the complex Gollum, a brilliant combination of computer trickery and raspy vocals from Andy Serkis (the campaign for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar starts here).

Other newcomers include Faramir (David Wenham), the understandably miffed brother of the recently deceased Boromir, and Éowyn (Miranda Otto), who spends much of her time casting winsome glances in the general direction of Aragorn (Mortensen). Eventually the plot complexities become more coherent, setting the action up for the forthcoming finale, The Return Of The King.

As we've come to expect, this is spectacular stuff - from an opening which sees Frodo troubled by dreams about the demise of Gandalf, through to the climactic Battle Of Helm's Deep, which is nothing short of breathtaking. But Jackson cleverly tempers the louder, brasher sequences with some heartstring-tugging moments - peasants despondent as they are forced to abandon their villages, Aragorn and Arwen's troubled relationship, and, of course, the return of Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen, superb as ever), one of the film's most powerful, memorable images that may well leave Ring devotees a little misty-eyed.

However, those who still believe that the trilogy is beyond criticism may find their views challenged by The Two Towers. It's just as long as the first film, but gets the heroes no closer to a final victory. And, where the first movie developed its emotional tone from the brightness of The Shire to a darker climax, the sequel is more of a one-note affair, shadowy in both look and content.

This is particularly true of the Ringbearer's quest, which adds the not-insignifcant Gollum to the party, but suffers more than the other story strands from the cross-cutting and finishes with a nearly identical pep talk from Sam to the tearful speech that climaxed Fellowship. Of course, given the nature of the material, and Jackson's desire to be faithful, this is all understandable. And by the time we all end up under siege at Helm's Deep, it's unlikely anyone will give a toss about narrative arcs: like Gollum, this is simply gob-smacking, mind-blowing, never-seen-before stuff.


Verdict - It may lack the first-view-thrill and natural dramatic shape of Fellowship, but this is both funnier and darker than the first film, and certainly more action-packed. An essential component of what is now destined to be among the best film franchises of all time.

5/5

- Caroline Westbrook, Empire Magazine