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Amazon.co.uk Review
There's no time for recapitulation, as a host of new characters are introduced in rapid succession. In Rohan we meet the initially moribund King Theoden (Bernard Hill); his treacherous advisor Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif); his feisty niece Eowyn (Miranda Otto); and his strong-willed nephew Eomer (Karl Urban). Faramir (David Wenham), brother of Boromir, is the other principal human addition to the cast. The hobbits, though, encounter the two most remarkable new characters, both of whom are digitally generated: in Fangorn Forest, Merry and Pippin are literally carried away by Treebeard, a dignified old Ent; while Frodo and Sam capture the duplicitous Gollum, whose fate is inextricably intertwined with that of the Ring.
The film stands or falls with Gollum. If the characterisation had gone the way of Jar Jar Binks, The Two Towers would have been ruined, notwithstanding all the spectacle and grandeur of the rest. But Gollum is a triumph, a tribute both to the computer animators and the motion-captured performance of Andy Serkis: his "dialogues", delivered theatre-like direct to the audience, are a masterstroke. Here and elsewhere Jackson is unafraid to make changes to the story line, bringing Frodo and Sam to Osgiliath, for example, or tipping Aragorn over a cliff. Yet the director's deft touch always seems to add not detract from Tolkien's vision. Just three among many examples: Aragorn's poignant dreams of Arwen (Liv Tyler); Gimli's comic repartee even in the heat of battle; and the wickedly effective siege weapons of the Uruk-Hai (which signify both Saruman's mastery and his perversion of technology). The climactic confrontation at Helm's Deep contains images the like of which have simply never been seen on film before. Almost unimaginably, there's so much more still to come in the Return of the King.
On the DVD: The Two Towers two-disc set, like the Fellowship before it, features the theatrical version of the movie on the first disc, in glorious 2.35:1 widescreen, accompanied by Dolby 5.1 or Dolby Stereo sound options. As before, commentaries and the really in-depth features are held back for the extended four-disc version.
Such as they are, all the extras are reserved for Disc Two. The 14-minute documentary On the Set is a run-of-the-mill publicity preview for the movie; more substantial is the 43-minute Return to Middle-Earth, another promotional feature, which at least has plenty of input from cast and crew. Much more interesting are the briefer pieces, notably: Sean Astin's charming silent short The Long and the Short of It, plus an amusing making-of featurette; a teaser trailer for the extended DVD release; and a tantalising 12-minute sneak peek at Return of the King, introduced by Peter Jackson, in which he declares nonchalantly that "Helm's Deep was just an opening skirmish"! --Mark Walker
DVD Description
Disc 1: The Feature
- Feature (approx. 179 minutes)
- Widescreen (2.35:1) or Fullscreen version of the film
- Dolby Digital EX 5.1 Surround Sound
- Stereo Surround Sound
- English subtitles and closed captions
Disc 2: Special Features - Bonus disc featuring hours of additional content:
- 2 in-depth programs that reveal the secrets behind the production of this epic adventure, including:
On the set – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Return to Middle-earth - 8 featurettes originally created for lordoftherings.net:
Forces of Darkness
Sounds of Middle-earth
Edoras & Rohan Culture
Creatures
Gandalf the White
Arms & Armor
Helm’s Deep
Gollum: Andy Serkis, Bay Raitt - Exclusive 10-minute behind-the-scenes preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- Emiliana Torrini "Gollum Song" music video
- Short film by Sean Astin The Long and Short of It + behind-the-scenes "making of"
- Preview of Electronic Arts’ video game, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
- An inside look at the Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
DVD-ROM Content:
- Exclusive online content
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Customer Reviews
I have bought the first two parts of the trilogy in their boxed presentation form, and have not been disappointed. Fellowship was great, but Two Towers was outstanding. The statuette of Gollum is a work of art, and the boxed bonus DVD of the creation of Gollum was an unexpected extra which makes fascinating viewing.
Whatever you do, be sure to buy the extended versions of these movies. They are more much complete. Fellowship was much improved by putting back the gift presentations by Galadriel, and Two Towers benefits greatly by having a more complete ending than the cinema version.
I can't wait for next November and the release of the final boxed DVD set of The Return Of The King. Can I place my order now please Amazon?
What else is there to say about the movie itself that hasn't already been stated? Surely THE most spectacular battle scene ever filmed vies for your attention with the most stunning and convincing non-human creature ever to grace the big screen! Gollum is utterly believable and the alternating pity, tragedy and horror that Tolkien wished us to feel, is conjured forth with astonishing skill by Jackson. Sumptious, sweeping landscapes and not a duff piece of acting in sight complete this marvellous movie experience.
This edition is SO much better than the 2-disk theatrical version, that it is indispensible to the Tolkien fan.
This is the second part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and continues the tale after "The Breaking of the Fellowship" chapter of the first book. It is necessarily more fragmented than the first film and follows the book less faithfully than the first film. The fellowship is now split into 3 groups: Frodo and Sam, on their way to Mordor to destroy the ring, Merry and Pippin being carried towards Isengard by orcs, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in pursuit of the hobbitnappers. Some of the departures from the book do seem unnecessary and change some of the subtle meaning the author (I believe) intended to convey. The most heinous of these liberties, change the personalities of the characters and the less bad just cause slight patches of nonsense in the story.
By some rather annoying jiggery-pokery, Arwen keeps popping onto the screen, mainly in dream sequences and also a scene in Rivendell where her father, Elrond, persuades her to leave Middle Earth and leave Aragorn. This is a fairly major departure from the original story and seems no more than a ploy to distort and over-inflate the romantic angle. It changes the personalities of 3 important characters and actually wastes rather than saves film time. Gollum, although a wonderfully well made character in the film, has been turned into something like a cute but naughty dog with a split personality. He seemed very much more sinister and dangerous in the book. Faramir has been changed from noble, strong-minded and wise to something more weak-minded and indecisive.
Where possible, Mr Jackson has used Tolkien's words although the speaker of the words may be different. For example, Treebeard says some of Tom Bombadil's lines. This is quite clever and difficult to spot. However, there are places where Tolkien's words are used, but because of alterations to the story, they don't make sense. There is an inserted scene in the film where Treebeard presents Merry and Pippin to Gandalf in Fangorn forest. Later Treebeard is telling the hobbits that he's going to keep them safe, as Gandalf instructed. So when Gandalf later meets Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli in the forest, you would expect him to have remembered that his name is Gandalf, but he has to dredge it up from the depths of his memory when they address him by that name, which makes him look senile. Tolkien's Gandalf was certainly not senile. Legolas is treated as though he were a youth. Gimli calls him "laddie". Tolkien's Legolas is actually many hundreds of years old. Fangorn (Treebeard) is the oldest creature walking Middle Earth, and Fangorn forest is so old that it almost makes Legolas feel young again.
Despite all the criticisms (and there are many more), it's still a great movie, especially if you come to it fresh - having watched The Fellowship of the Ring but never having read the Lord of the Rings. If you've read the book and particularly if you've read the book many times, you can best enjoy the film by taking a laid-back attitude to its relationship to the book. Accept that a lot of the subtle meaning is lost but it's still a gripping yarn. I thought the actors were all excellent and didn't mind at all that Legolas skate-boarded down the steps at Helm's Deep or that Gimli was a comedian. The orcs were very well done - a really revolting lot - the dark lord's GM elves. The ents were as I imagined them. I was pleased that the wargs didn't look anything like wolves (a departure from the book I fully approved of). The music was very good. I rate this film a five star because nothing's perfect and I would have thought this came very close if I hadn't been spoilt by reading the story it was based upon.
Really great quality for a standard DVD as well, I definitely recommend this if... Read more
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