Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Part of the Greatest Story Ever Told, 16 Sep 2008
I truly believe that 'the Lord of the Rings' is one of the greatest stories ever told. The tale of Frodo Baggins and the ring of power carries on in the second part of the trilogy, where Frodo and Sam are continuing their relentless quest to Mordor to destory the ring, only to be joined by the sinister yet pitiable creature known as Gollum. Meanwhile, Merry & Pip try their hardest to escape from the evil orcs who captured them at the end of 'The Fellowship of the Ring', whilst Gimley, Legolas and Aragorn meet a king and immediatley sense something is not right. Old characters return and new ones are introduced as the tale of the Ring grows closer to it's end.
The extended edition is far superior to the original, though the amount of time it takes to watch borderlines on ridiculous. There are many (necessary) explanations and more focus on various story arcs. I was especially pleased at the extra focus on Arwen and Aragorn, one of the main stories to hold my interest.
As with the 1st of the films, each shot, every scene is spectacular to watch, and as the viewer you never question the integrity of this fantasy world - for a few hours you truly are transported into Middle Earth, the characters do exist, the elves, dwarfs, orcs, ents and hobbits are all real. The soundtrack is breathtaking and the acting is superb - the characters all look and sound the part and the script is infallible. I don't really have any complaints, except (as I mentioned earlier) for the length of the film, but as this is the extended edition, and that no matter how long this film is it never once feels boring, all is forgiven on my part and I sincerely look forward to watching 'the Two Towers' again. This is how film adaptations from books are meant to be done. Those responsible for the Harry Potter and Narnia films would do to take heed and learn from the master.
|
|
|
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The centre of Middle Earth, 10 Oct 2007
Chris Cooper's performance in 2002's Adaptation was skilful and memorable, but the Academy Award for Actor In A Supporting Role should surely have gone to Andy Serkis for his performance as Gollum in the second part of Peter Jackson's seminal movie trilogy. The Two Towers (correctly) received the Visual Effects gong, but the Academy may have missed a trick - we couldn't have felt pity for poor Smeagol without the Englishman's dazzling talent.
The Two Towers is the heart of the story in Jackson's (and Fran Walsh's, Philippa Boyens', and Steven Sinclair's) take on the tale. The book has been seriously and necessarily rejigged to suit the demands of the classical narrative. The battle of Helm's Deep, for instance, has been promoted beyond what was essentially a precursor to the final battle to something more immense: a grand, emotionally-driven climactic battle which represents arguably the best single action encounter of the trilogy.
But this last stand would be nothing were it not for the quality of the drama that precedes it. The Fellowship of the Ring set the scene; The Return of the King tore the scene to shreds on an awe-inspiring scale. The Two Towers, meanwhile, sows the seeds that will bloom into the enthralling narrative conflicts concluded in its sequel, as well as containing numerous character arcs of its own. The reluctant feud begins between Boromir (Sean Bean) and Faramir (David Wenham) for the love of their father, Denethor (John Noble); the adversity between nature and industry, represented by the mighty Ents and the tyrant Saruman (Christopher Lee), comes full circle; Grima Wormtongue's (a particularly superb Brad Dourif) fleeting power over the troubled king Theoden (Bernard Hill) and his adopted son, Eomer (Karl Urban) is a wicked war waged by an opportunist weakling. And I haven't even mentioned the surviving members of the Fellowship...
Pleasingly, Jackson et al continue their exploration of Arwen (Liv Tyler), as well as introducing another prominent female character. Miranda Otto's Eowyn is spiky and obstinate, and yet hauntingly bereft; a pale ghost wandering the prison of her uncle (Theoden). She's the most interesting female character in the series by far, deservingly foregrounded for the latter two movies.
Epic, exciting, heartfelt, and frightening - this is a brilliant hub for the trilogy.
|
|
|
56 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The movie is a mind-blowing, mind-boggling masterpiece!, 8 Jan 2003
"Lord of the rings: the Two towers" is undeniably the number one film of 2002. It's an awe-inspiring fantasy. The savagery of warfare and the presence of fatality being imagined with such sumptuousness haven't been this good in a long time. The beautiful cinematography is bound to impress you. The movie does get a little slow around the middle when Aragorn dreams of Arwen but the movie soon paces up quickly. Despite the fact that the movie isn't as hearty as the first one (Fellowship of the rings), this sequel is even better. The suspense, battling the Orcs, and the visual pleasure of the eye-catching landscapes is all wonderful. The movie even has the soothing score to fit the scenes making the scenes perfectly in the mood of the movie. The movie is a mind-blowing, mind-boggling masterpiece of a mess! The Two towers is the middle third of an epic that will doubtlessly excel as one of the most courageous and victorious films in motion-picture history. It's an epic of grandeur. Spectacular, thrilling, and significantly touching, it's the very description of heroic adventure. It has the fighting that 'Star Wars episode II' has, the heroic adventure that 'Spiderman' has, the moving scenes that 'The good girl' has, and the imaginative creatures not to mention a great novel that 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of secrets' has so in short 'The two towers' is a wrap-up of all the critically successful films of 2002. Peter Jackson's excellent movie makes you forget that the most horrific and sinister scenes are yet to be seen in 2003's 'Lord of the rings: The return of the king'. It's a thought-provoking work of art. It makes you wonder how the third movie will ever compete with the second but that's what we thought when we watched the first movie. The cast ensemble was of coarse excellent and the battle of Helm's Deep is one of the best, most outgoing battle sequences ever to be showed on the big movie screen. The movie will have you at the edge of your seat at all times. You'd forget everything. It's just like actually playing the Two towers game. Now this is filmmaking on a supreme level; inspiring, stirring, and ideal. When the hours long movie is over, you can just not stop wanting more. The movie is definitely built on numbers like the countless numbers of Orcs, the movie budget, the prediction of the movie's box-office gross, and let's not forget the 26,000 extras. The balance of supremacy is uneven across Middle-earth. Two Towers - the Dark Lord Sauron's dominating place at Barad-dûr and the wizard Saruman's place at Orthanc - have allied to fight in opposition to all civilization, and bring about the ending of the race of Humankind. The mortifying evil of The One Ring, forged by Sauron, has split the Fellowship that stuck together to destroy it. The quest has already claimed the life of the Wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) and the Human Boromir (Sean Bean). Only the Hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) has shown some resistance to its great power, which makes him solely capable to be the Ring bearer. Now Frodo must face his fate unaided. Accompanied only by his reliable companion, Sam, Frodo goes into evil lands uninformed that he is on the trail of Gollum who previously owned the ring. I won't tell you the rest. It'll spoil it! Overall it's an exceptional movie. It's something that'll get rave reviews in all reader's (watcher's) response journals. The Fellowship of the rings showed why the ring was important to the characters and now the sequel explains why the ring is important to us. The sequel is something you can watch for a long time on the cinemas while you wait for the third movie in the trilogy. Peter Jackson is like Joseph L. Mankiewicz (Cleopatra-1963) in the way that he uses an expensive budget to make his movie a masterpiece also not caring how long the movie runs for. He is also like David Lean (Dr. Zhivago) in the way that he uses spectacular cinematography to impress us. And last but not least he's like Steven Spielberg in the way that he creates movies that impress the generations and in the way that he will too leave a great effect in motion picture history.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Five Disc Collector's Box Set) [DVD] [2002]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51KPRB94BYL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Extended Edition Box Set) [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41VS6XSXTGL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Two Disc Theatrical Edition) [DVD] [2001]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VVEH85HRL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition) [DVD] [2004]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FY8WH3BCL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Two Disc Theatrical Edition) [DVD] [2001]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VVEH85HRL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Two Disc Theatrical Edition) [DVD] [2003]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AFAQJN7JL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition) [DVD] [2004]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FY8WH3BCL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Matrix [1999] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5117ZW5600L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![The Matrix Reloaded (2 Disc Edition) [2003] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510VKWRVECL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
Make sure you always get what you want with an Amazon.co.uk 
With an Amazon.co.uk 
