Customer Reviews

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Two Disc Theatrical Edition) [DVD] [2002]

Epic DVD Part 2!, 7 Mar 2006

By	Mr. Jd Ware "wolvie-ware" (London) - See all my reviews

This will be down to one thing: The epic canvas really expands in this installment. The characters are not in a safe Fellowship anymore, and find themselves all across Middle-Earth.

Frodo and Sam are trying to destroy the ring. Merry and Pippin are captured by Orcs. Aragorn, legolas and Gimli are trying to protect the kingdom of Rohan. And there's the return of everybody's fabourite wizard...

Storylines, therefore, are far more complex than Fellowship of the Ring, which had a simple story. There's more interwoven plot lines and the introduction of many new, exciting characters.

The kingdom of Rohan is pictured magnificently, and are real heroes to get behind. Particularly Bernard Hill as the King, and Karl Urban in a role yet to be bettered as Eomer.

But the real kudos in this part should go to Gollum - astounding, amazing, brilliant. Andy Serkis proves that Gollum is more than just a CGI creation, giving the character feelings, emotions, humour, sadness and scariness. Gollum is a true cinematic acheivement.

The Two Towers also holds the trilogy's greatest set piece - Helm's Deep. It may not have the open, savage fight as appears in Return of the King, but its claustrophobic feel, and tension filled battle really makes the stand-off between Rohan and the Orcs a real set-piece. The build-up is superb, the battle even better, as it is far more personal than any other fight in the series. We're there with the characters, and those who don't feel overwhelmed by the sight of the Orcs advancing hasn't got a pulse. Incredibly well paced, this is the best action scene ever put on film.

The extended edition improves on the theatrical version in many ways. There's more development between Viggo Mortensen and Liv Tyler's characters, giving them a rich backstory, and there's a bit more info about the giant Ent trees.

As before, the four disc set has the movie on two discs, with the bst commentary going this time round to Peter Jackson. He's a wealth of information and ideas, and points many ecxiting things out. I would have said the cast commentary, but while for the Fellowship of the Ring commentary they were all mostly in the same room, here they are'nt, and the commentary has been pieced together from separate sittings.

Once again, plenty of documentaries and art galleries. It's all far too much t owatch, so I'd recommend, again, the doc on Tolkein, the filoming doc, and anything you can find on the creation of Gollum and Helm's Deep, all of which is riveting viewing.

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The movie is a mind-blowing, mind-boggling masterpiece!, 8 Jan 2003

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.

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Remarkable vision to match the imagination behind it, 13 Jan 2003

By	Anthony Lynas (Leicester, UK) - See all my reviews

The film itself - bravely - opens with no summary of it's prequel, and throughout pays scant reference to it. It also doesn't open where the previous book ended; to say anymore would spoil it for those who haven't seen it, but the opening almost acts as a further rebuff for those that wanted a (frankly impossible) literal retelling of the books, passage for passage. Instead, Jackson once again preoccupies himself with retaining the structure and timeline of the book, building the detail of the dialogue and action around key events and lines that are common to both. If anything, it works better here than in the theatrical version of Fellowship of the Ring, as Jackson manages to maintain the pace and focus of the film through the potentially difficult opening half prior to the action beginning.

The film itself is shaped around three astonishing performances. Viggo Mortensen, as Aragorn, leads Legolas and Gimli into Rohan and, through the course of the film, begins his character's transformation from world-weary Ranger to the King of Men - and does so remarkably. The Rohan cast, particularly Grima Wormtongue and King Theoden, excel as the Fellowship liberates them from political control only for them to face annihilation at the hand's of the Uruk-Hai.

Elijah Wood's Frodo is also in transition, and again the actor handles the changing character in such a way that you don't doubt what is happening. The ringbearer's shift from bright and carefree to the paranoid, fey, desperate hobbit at the end of the film is handled brilliantly.

The final performance of note is digital. Gollum, the bearer of the ring before Bilbo, is a motion-captured computer animation, but you would barely know it. Not just because he looks real (which isn't that surprising anymore) but because he is voiced and played brilliantly. Some of the most effective sequences in the film are his schizophrenic soliloquys as his good and bad sides battle for control; had this not been believable the changes in Frodo would not have seemed so desperate, nor would the threat to the ringbearer have been so all encompassing. In a film where many of the effects that are assumed to be digital manipulation are not, it is one that is that holds the entire movie together.

The two other major storylines also rely heavily on special effects. Merry and Pippin befriend and attempt to persuade the Ents - treemen - to aid them in their battle with Saruman. Once again, Jackson has eschewed fantasy kitsch and the treemen are all unique and individual creations. Finally, the climactic battle at Helms Deep is, quite simply, film-making on a scale nobody has ever achieved before. Jackson, it seems, unlike George Lucas, understands the importance of older methods of film-making alongside newer ones and the result is a battle of such immense scale that pretty much every other scene of warfare produced on celluloid before pales into insignificance.

There's no doubt that the film is a triumph. Many of the actors have publicly said they believe the film will be seen as one of the all time greats, and it's difficult to argue with that. To produce a film that - on one level - is a spectacle the kind of which has rarely been attempted before and yet - on another - stands or falls on the strength of the characterisation of it's central characters is a remarkable achievement. Such is it's quality, it actually makes it's prequel more essential and, to think, we have The Return of the King yet to come. Make no mistake - the years spent in production and post-production have been worth it. Peter Jackson has created a set of films he will never equal, and a set of fantasy films no-one ever will, and there can be no greater compliment to him than to say he has done full justice here to Tolkein's vision in the second part of The Lord of the Rings.

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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Version, 12 Dec 2003

The extra footage, adds depth and suspense to the story, which makes it more gripping, particularly during some of the extended scenes during the battle of Helm's Deep. There is more character evolution, which gives one a more indepth view of the more mystical sides of the main characters (their backgrounds and their power), particularly Aragon and Gandalf.

Furthermore, the extended material gives a larger role to Merry and Pippin, to which many hardcore lord of the rings fans is a great boost to the story. They are a greater aspect of the story and unlike in the theatrical cut, don't just sit in a tree all the film.

What I enjoyed most however, was the realism of the film that the extented edition gave to Tolkein's writings, though true some aspects were not entirly accurate to the 'The Two Towers' book, the extended editon gave one the feeling more that they were in Middle-Earth, than the theatrical cut.

'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Extended Version' is an ideal viewing for any lord of the rings fan, but furthermore, it is a great epic to watch of any person, even those who saw the theatrical cut, before reading the book. That is why I give this great extended edition of an epic five stars.

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Not perfect, but very very good, 21 Oct 2003

By	Sally-Anne "mynameissally" (Leicestershire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

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.

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