Rating: 8/10
Review date: December 16, 2003
Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the fellowship was broken with Frodo and Sam continuing their dangerous quest alone to Mount Doom while the mysterious Gollum is following close behind. Gandalf is missing and Boromir is dead. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli chased a bunch of orcs who has taken Merry and Pippin hostage. Meanwhile Saruman�s Uruk-hai army advanced to invade Rohan and Sauron�s forces are also preparing to attack Gondor�
The second installment to Lord of the Rings is finally here. Does it live up to the original movie? Definitely! Just like Fellowship of the Ring, director Peter Jackson follows the source material quite closely with some minor changes here and there.
It is worth noting that if you have not read the books, you might not be able to appreciate the movie as much as someone who does. As for myself, I have read all three books but fantasy-themed stories are not my cup of tea. I�m not a hardcore fan of Lord of the Rings although I do like the franchise.
The setting in The Two Towers is still as beautiful as the first movie and Jackson�s sweeping overhead camera movements is back to show the gorgeous landscape in New Zealand. Howard Shore is also back with great musical scores that really fits the scenes in which they were played.
The action sequences are very well done with a climatic battle at the fortress of Helm�s Deep involving thousands of Uruk-hai and humans squaring off against each other.
The CGI must be one of the best that I�ve ever seen in any movie up-to-date. Gollum is created by using computer animation combined with motion reading technology based on a real actor. The movements are then translated into the screen which resulted in very life-like and fluid rendition of Gollum on the screen. The details look utterly incredible especially when close-ups of Gollum are shown.
The cast members are back to reprise their respective roles with some mixed results. Frodo and Sam (acted by Elijah Wood and Sean Astin) are given more screen time with much of it spent interacting with Gollum.
Andy Serkis lends his throaty and hoarse voice for Gollum which further enhance my fascination with the creature on top of the standards that they achieved for Gollum�s looks.
Ian McKellen as Gandalf is given less screen time here although he looks great on that white horse. Saruman (Christopher Lee) only appears in very short scenes but he is still convincing as the evil wizard.
Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) is back to kick more ass and look cool (as they have always been with the exception of Gimli who sports some one-liners). Enough said.
Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) spend half of their time with the orcs and the other half interacting with Treebeard who I don�t give a damn about. Don�t get me wrong though; I appreciate the fact that Jackson and crew managed to put this event into the big screen but I just find it a bit too boring.
Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and his daughter Arwen (Liv Tyler) suffers from a lack of presence as well although this is not really a big loss.
The Two Towers see the addition of some new characters: King Theoden of Rohan (Bernard Hill), his niece Eowyn (Miranda Otto) and advisor Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), Boromir�s brother Faramir (David Wenham) and Eomer, a knight from Rohan (Karl Urban).
They were given some short scenes to portray their characters and they did an adequate job although Eowyn has the most screen time of all. I would like to see her character expanded in the sequel because she has the potential.
Director Peter Jackson and his crew really push the limit in The Two Towers (it�s all about Gollum) and successfully maintain the standard that was set in Fellowship of the Ring. Lots of praise to the special effects team for creating Gollum which sets a new boundary for CG creatures, also not forgetting Andy Serkis and his �Precious��
What else is there to say? If you enjoy the first movie, you will most probably enjoy this one too. Just keep hoping that Return of the King will come soon enough� Oh and I didn�t forget to mention Gollum right?
*Trivia*
The orc battle cries for the Helm�s Deep battle sequence were provided by a stadium of 25,000 cricket fans with Jackson himself leading the crowd.
The Helm�s Deep set was built in New Zealand over a period of seven months.
The voice of Treebeard is provided by John Rhys-Davies.
The battle at Helm�s Deep was edited down from twenty hours of footage, shot over a three month period with the rain machine battering down on the cast.
Gimli's armor weighed about 30kg (66lb).
There were so many extras used in the sequences at Helm�s Deep, and the filming went for so many months that almost all the extras and principle actors got tee-shirts reading "I survived Helm�s Deep". There were so many of these shirts that extras would often meet other extras in New Zealand's main cities because they would recognize the shirts.
One frame of Gollum would take around eight minutes to render, while one frame of Treebeard could take up to 48 hours to render.
Andy Serkis (Gollum) was ruled ineligible for a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 2003 Academy Awards because his character onscreen was computer generated.
While filming the trilogy, Viggo Mortensen got so into character that during a conversation, Peter Jackson referred to him as "Aragorn" for over half an hour without him realizing it.
Viggo Mortensen was so impressed with the horse his character rides that he purchased him from the owners. The horse was shipped back to New Zealand for the additional shots that were filmed in 2002.
Memorable quote: �My precious��
-Andy Serkis as Gollum-
(c) Martin Taidy