The Lord Of The Ring: The Two Towers

The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers released in 2002 is the second in the film adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings, and was directed by Peter Jackson. I feel like the best way to start this is by quoting Roger Ebert: "It is not faithful to the spirit of Tolkien and misplaces much of the charm and whimsy of the books, but it stands on its own as a visionary thriller". He is right in his review, 100% right. So that leaves me as fan of the book who wants to go on and on about how it is different, but on the other hand to judge it on its own merits. There are very big differences between the book and the film, some of which are due to the films not starting and ending in the same places as the books, and other difference are due to the addition of the Arwen and Aragorn which were never in the books, but only in the appendices of the Return Of The King, other parts were added, changed, or left out for dramatic purposes or pacing. That all said, at this point I feel it is best to just discuss the films on their own. The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers, picks up where The Fellowship Of The Ring left off, with the breaking of the fellowship. The film now tells the story of Frodo and Sam as the continue on their own to Mordor with the Ring and their meeting and travels with Gollum; Merry and Pippen as they wander into Fangorn Forest and meet Tree Beard and convince him to join the war; and with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they follow the orcs that kidnapped Merry and Pippin, and then they meet with Gandalf (now Gandalf the White), and he assures them the Hobbits are fine, and that they should instead go to Rohan to enlist the help of Lord Theodin the King of Rohan. This film, is extremely well done, the special effects are beautiful, and still hold up very well. The sets are breathtaking, being filmed again in the amazing landscape of New Zealand. The cast is perfect in their roles, and perfectly played their parts. The Battle scene at Helms Deep, though climatically one of the greatest battle scenes of all time, to me, began to wear on and get tedious and boring (but this is a problem I tend to have with any drawn out battle scene in any film). There is some amazing dialogue in the film, and some very moving scenes. This is a film that has everything a great film needs, a great story with full real emotions, great action, great dialogue, the right amount of drama, and flashy enough to keep the viewer's attention. The grey and dismal tone that the film takes on, fits very well with the despair and lack of hope that many of the characters are feeling in the face of such an insurmountable evil that is bearing down on them from two fronts. I must say though, that like the previous film clocking in around 3 hours in length, this film is a hell of a time commitment and knowing that it is only the middle third of the overall story, makes it all even a bit more intimidating. Being that this is the middle section of a book that was meant to be published as one work and not as a trilogy, means that this film doesn't have a real beginning and a real ending, and thus really can not be viewed as its own separate work, and must only be viewed as part of the overall trilogy. When these films were released we had to wait a year between films, and had to anxiously wait a full year to see how Peter Jackson and company were going to end the series. When I was watching these the first time in the theater, I was actually quite impressed with how well done they were, and at the time they were my favourite films, even though they differed from the books, they still respected the source material, though I still stand with my original thoughts that adding in the love story of Arwen and Aragorn is unnecessary and gets in the way of the story, if Tolkien didn't feel it should be a focus of the novel, and only mentions it as a note in the Appendix of the last book, should mean that it is also not an important enough plot point that it should be added to the films. But that said, it works well enough, and Liv Tyler does make a very beautiful elf. Would I recommend this film? Yes, with all of my heart I recommend this film. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy are a must watch film series for viewers of all ages. These films are absolutely beautiful, and honestly magical to watch. This trilogy of films are among some of the greatest films ever made, both in how they look and the impressive technical milestone that they set, these films broke so much ground on what could be done in film, and these films are what all fantasy works will forever forward be judged upon. So set aside 9 plus hours and watch these amazing films.