Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) by Stuart L — 28 Jul 2013

The second installment in the trilogy such a great movie, that's it's hard to know where to start. This movie continues where the last movie left off. Frodo and Sam are on their way to Mordor and meet Gollum, who still is attracted to "the precious" but leads the two closer to Mordor. The multi-race trio (Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas) tries to find Merry and Pippin but meet someone else on the way. Meanwhile, Sauruman is planning the ultimate destruction of Rohan, one of the few good kingdoms that stand in the way of Sauron. It sounds complex, but he story is told in a way that all these plots are cohesive and equal.

Again, let's start with the cast. In my FOTR review, I commended all the actors and all I have to say for all of them is that the character arcs for this movie are well performed. Legolas and Gimili expand from minor characters to more front line characters, showing some friendly competition and bonding together, showing how different races can get along I do have to go over the new/reformed characters. Let's start with Gandalf. Gandalf in this movie resurrected and is now Gandalf the White. He's a more stern and authoritative figure. Gone is the wit and charm of Gandalf the Grey. A lot of people didn't criticize the acting of Ian McKellen, who I believed was superb, but the direction of the character. I'm not complaining. He needs to be different in times of war. Moving on to Bernard Hill's Theoden, he gives a fine performance for a character that shows so much pain and guilt of his actions that hurt his people. Karl Urban's Eomer is fine but his character doesn't do much, which is a minor nuance. He also only shows up in the beginning and the end, but it works. Miranda Otto's performance of Eowyn is just fantastic. Otto brings a certain charm and innocence to the character but at the same time could kill you (which is shown in the next movie). David Wenham's Faramir is also well done. The brother of Boromir, he strives to be better than his brother. His character isn't as interesting if you don't watch the extended edition, which explain his backstory. Still, he gives a decent performance, showing the same qualities as Boromir who can be kind, but also can be quite evil and menacing. I don't blame the writers for the liberties they took with the character, who wasn't seduced by the ring. They needed obstacles for Frodo and Sam and that was fine. Moving on to the performance that inspired me, Andy Serkis's Gollum. It's not just the voice, nor the CGI, but his commitment to the character that was great and inspired me. He gives Gollum the childish side, but also the corrupted evil side. All in all, you just feel a lot of pity for Gollum.

The Battle of Helm's Deep is the climax and is just breathtaking. Tens of thousands of Urks on the big screen is just jaw dropping. The ending of the battle also choked me up, as did Sam's window speech. The music just made the movie ever so grand as it did before. My only problem, low survivors! The original Helm's Deep army had about 600, there were only about 10 left, which sucks! But that's fine.

Let's talk about the themes. First of all, that good can survive. Sam's quote "That there's still some good in this world Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for." really resonates with the audience. Whatever bad happens around us, in this case, 10,000 Urks about to wipe out Rohan, good will prevail as long as there's still one good person alive. Another theme is the conclusion of the environmental theme. The first movie shows the vulnerability and the sadness of cutting down the trees. They're cut down to fuel industrialism and raise an army for Sauraman. This movie establishes how the forest now fights back and totally wrecks Isengard. Mother Nature always wins. These themes again, might not be apparent but come up after watching the movie.

All in all, go watch it. It's one of the best movies out there.