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Dan Owen reviews

The Lord Of The Rings:
The Two Towers

Viewed at Warner Home Cinemas, Swindon

Cert:
Running time: 179 minutes
Year: 2002
Released: 18th December 2002
Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
Sound: DTS-ES/Dolby EX 6.1/SDDS

Director: Peter Jackson

Screenplay: Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Stephen Sinclair & Phillipa Boyens (based on the novel by J.R.R Tolkien)

Cast:

Aragorn: Viggo Mortensen
Frodo: Elijah Wood
Gandalph: Ian McKellen
Saruman: Christopher Lee
King Th�oden: Bernard Hill
Gollum/Smeagol: Andy Serkis
Sam: Sean Astin
Legolas: Orlando Bloom
Gimli/Treebeard, voice: John Rhys-Davies
Merry: Dominic Monaghan
Pippin: Billy Boyd
�owyn: Mirando Otto
Gr�ma Wormtongue: Brad Dourif
Elrond: Hugo Weaving
�om�r: Karl Urban
Faramir: David Wenham
Arwen: Liv Tyler
Galadriel: Cate Blanchett

The eagerly awaited second instalment of Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy finally arrived this Christmas.

The epic journey for audiences continue as we catch up with the broken 'Fellowship'; Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas are pursuing the Uruk-hai kidnappers of Pippin and Merry, Sam and Frodo continue their exodus to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring, and Gandalph's fate is revealed in a gripping continuation of the last film's battle with the Balrog demon in the Caves Of Moria...

The Two Towers is the "middle child" of the trilogy. This means it immediately loses the freshness and uniqueness of "Fellowship", or the inevitable dramatic pay-off of 2003's climax with The Return Of The King. The film's sole mission is to broaden the scope of the story, introduce new characters, and develop the existing ones. Thankfully, Jackson is a master storyteller and expertly condenses and enhances J.R.R Tolkien's source material into a fitting cinematic adaptation � with the help of co-writers Fran Walsh, Stephen Sinclair and Phillipa Boyens.

The cast all continue to do stirling work, despite the fact many key characters receive less screen time. Christopher Lee's Saruman and Ian McKellen's Gandalph are, in particular, pushed deep into the background for this instalment, leaving Viggo Mortensen's Aragorn to assume the lead role - even grabbing more screen time than Elijah Wood's Frodo! This change in character dominance can be a little frustrating, particularly as some of the brand new characters introduced make very little impact � with the exception of Bernard Hill's excellent King Th�oden. Mirando Otto's �owyn hints at a romantic subplot with Aragorn that never properly materializes, Brad Dourif's Wormtongue is great value but quickly pushed aside, while Liv Tyler's Arwen has to make do with a few flashbacks! Other characters such as Faramir and �om�r are cruelly underdeveloped under the weight of the ever-increasing cast size.

The plot for "Two Towers" also differs from "Fellowship", as it is fractured into three sub-plots; Aragorn's rallying of Mankind at Rohan to deter an army of 10,000 Uruk-hai orcs, Merry and Pippin's adventure with Treebeard (a talking tree known as an Ent), and Sam and Frodo's increasingly desperate trek to Mount Doom with the help of Gollum � an emaciated ex-Ringbearer with a split-personality seen briefly in the last film.

This separation of the narrative makes the lengthy running time pass much quicker than the slightly meandering "Fellowship" did, particularly once the Helm's Deep sequence begins in Act III. However, the entire Treebeard subplot is unsatisfying until its crowd-pleasing conclusion � with all those scenes being particularly repetitive and oblique. The visual effects employed to bring Treebeard to life are about as good as you'd expect, but the ridiculousness of a walking talking tree means there's a constant sense of misplaced humour with them.

Elsewhere, the special effects are truly breathtaking. The Balrog is more physically impressive than in "Fellowship", and there are plenty of other beasts that stampede through the movie at regular intervals. But, of course, the real jewel in the crown is Gollum; a computer-generated actor based on the motion-capture data of actor Andy Serkis, who also provides Gollum's rasping voice. The technical achievement with Gollum is a landmark for CGI characters, as he gives a real performance in the film. His range of expressions and integration into scenes are phenomenal to behold and regardless of how he was achieved he's easily the most interesting character in the entire film. He may not be totally photo-realistic, but he's damn close at times. Gollum is a fabulous achievement that should take George Lucas' ILM by surprise after their comparatively inferior effort with Yoda in "Attack Of The Clones".

While Gollum will no doubt dominate your thinking after watching "The Two Towers", so too will the enormous battle sequence at Helm's Deep; a stronghold at the bottom of a Rohan valley, stormed by thousands of Uruk-hai in the final scenes. After the relative quiet of "Fellowship" in action terms, Jackson really lets himself have fun with these scenes. The hordes of CGI soldiers are awesome to behold, and the staging of the action quite magnificent. The impact does begin to wane after a while, particularly because of the inter-cutting back to the slow Treebeard subplot, but it's still a great technical triumph that deserves accolades.

Overall, "The Two Towers" is a fitting continuation of "Fellowship", although it lacks the first film's sense of adventure and storytelling prowess � a problem that Tolkien himself should take the blame for. Peter Jackson manages to improve Tolkien's narrative for his adaptation by taking far more liberties with the plot, but the result is still less immersive than "Fellowship". As expected, this sequel does manage to eclipses its progenitor in terms of rousing action sequences and startling special-effects, but little else truly improves on the last film.

But don't get me wrong - "The Two Towers" is still a very enjoyable return to Middle Earth that introduces us to plenty of new characters and wonderfully builds up anticipation for the "The Return Of The King" next Christmas. However, between the CGI eye-candy, one still gets the feeling this "middle child" will become the lesser instalment in Jackson's trilogy, just as the book is widely considered the weakest of the three...

DIRECTION PERFORMANCES SPECIAL FX SOUND/MUSIC
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dan Owen, 2002.

E-mail Dan Owen

Read all three of Dan Owen's Lord of the Rings reviews:

2001	The Fellowship of the Ring
2002	The Two Towers
2003	The Return of the King

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