Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) by Adam S — 14 Dec 2012

The perfect movie trilogy continues with "The Two Towers", which splits the rather single minded narrative of "Fellowship of the Ring" into 3 separate arcs - Frodo and the Ring; Aragorn, Gandalf and the Battle at Helm's Deep; and Merry and Pippin and the Ents of the Forest.

Returning cast members Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, Liv Tyler, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchette, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan and Christopher Lee are joined by some new perfectly cast members to the trilogy. Andy Serkis, while he appears briefly in "Fellowship", comes to his own as the creature Gollum in this film, while Bernard Lee, Karl Urban, Miranda Otto and David Wenham all fit their roles really well, especially, in my opinion, Wenham, who is believable as the brother of Sean Bean's Boromir.

Some classic scenes appear in this film. My two personal favourites are: the scene where Gollum and Smeagol have the discussion with one another about whether or not to trust Frodo is inspired film-making, portraying a complex plot point regarding Gollum's psyche on screen very effectively. Also, the scene towards the end of the Battle for Helm's Deep, when Gandalf, Eomer and the Horsemen arrive to turn the tide of battle (closely followed by the Ents storming Isengard) evokes the spirit of old epics, very effectively.

Another classic trip to Middle Earth.