Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) by Gimhana F — 13 Jan 2013

There's no doubt about it that this film is a bridge between Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King. I'm not usually not the biggest fan of bridge stories since all they do is just set up the finale without adding anything new.

For example, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix's only purpose is to prove that Voldemort is back and to set up the final battle, making this the worst of the Harry Potter series. However, The Two Towers is completely different from most bridge stories.

The film continues where Fellowship of the Ring left off with the Fellowship broken up and Sauron beginning his attack on Middle-Earth. Frodo and Sam are lost on their way to Mordor and ask Gollum/Smeagol to guide them.

Merry and Pippin have escaped their captors and are kept safe by Treegard, a talking tree that is the eldest of his kind. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli are assisting a town under attack by Orcs at their fortress in Helm's Pass.

While all of this is occurring, Sauron is growing stronger with the ring approaching closer. I thought that Two Towers was an improvement over Fellowship. Unlike Fellowship, while it does have a long length, I was able to keep my interest the entire time with clever dialogue and a smartly written script.

There's not many action scenes in this film, so the story relies on the dialogue to establish characters and set-up what will occur in the Return of the King. The character that shines the most in this film is Gollum.

This is the first time in the series that he's seen entirely. Every scene that he was in, I was clinging to his every world. Andy Serkis does a great job portraying the character and the ending shows that there will be a lot more of him that could be just as exciting as in this film.

I'm glad that I was able to finally see this film because it just leaves me, as well as newcomers and fans of the series, in anticipation for Return of the King and the epic conclusion.