"Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" Rated PG-13
****/*****
“Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” Rated PG-13 ***.5/**** Don’t expect any catching up in the second chapter of the epic trilogy. The Two Towers has almost no introduction and picks up exactly where the first movie left off. It doesn’t waste anytime reintroducing the characters. Instead it starts showing the development of the story and explaining what has happened to the characters.
The Fellowship from the first film has been broken. Frodo, the carrier of the ring, and his friend Sam are one group, the other hobbits Merry and Pippin make up another, and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli make up the third and probably most important group. In this story we start to see the situation grow even grimmer for all of Middle-earth. The evil lord Sauron is persisting and his armies grow even stronger. HIs warriors orcs wage constant warfare against the race of men and Frodo is finally starting to feel the powerful effects of the ring take control over him.
It was probably unavoidable, but one of the major detriments to this movie is that it spends little time on any group of characters. Frodo and Sam are not given much screen time and Merry Pippin almost none. The development and rhythm of the story is effected by the frequent shift of focus, but it keeps moving nonetheless. By the end of the film, I felt that I hadn’t seen very much of any of the characters. The addition of new character is also important to this film. The one I speak of in particular is the slithery and creepy Gollum, the past owner of the ring. This creature is magnificently done in total CGI animation, but for the first time in cinema (that I’m aware of) I was able to see a CGI character not as a special effect but as an actual character with probably more depth and emotion than any other in the entire movie. Watch for two incredible scenes where Gollum’s evil side starts to take hold over himself. I was stunned to see such an amazing performance given by a collection of pixels. It’s a shame that the people behind Gollum can’t be nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
Like the first film, excitement runs high in The Two Towers. In particular, the climactic 15 minute plus battle of Helm’s Deep is an awesome sight. Hundreds of thousands of warriors fight in a well crafted, exhilarating battle scene. However, there was more to the greatness of the first film than excitement. It’s hard to describe, but it feels like the magic of Fellowship of the Rings is all but lost in The Two Towers. It’s still a great movie, but it’s not on par with the first one.
