The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – The continuation of ‘epic’

It’s unlikely that many people will decide to enter the ‘Lord of the Rings’ world in the ‘middle’ of the story.  The ‘Rings’ books numbered three, therefore it was always known that the films would follow suit.  Most people (whether fans of the book, or those just interested in the hype of the first installment ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’) started with ‘Fellowship’ and watched ‘The Two Towers’ to see where the story went next.  For them – the majority – they wouldn’t really need much of a ‘recap’ to the plot.  For anyone else, they may be a little confused.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of both the books and the big screen adaptations, therefore I loved ‘The Two Towers’ and ‘got’ every reference.  However, if it does have one major flaw it is that it relies on the audience knowing what’s come before.  It doesn’t really spend much time reminding everyone of the events leading up to what’s happening now.

It continues the tale of a fictional land known as ‘Middle Earth’ and a dark lord trying to retrieve his magic ring so that he can become whole again and rule all.  Luckily for the free folk (such as elves, men and dwarfs) the ring has been sent to the one place it can be destroyed by two plucky little creatures known as Hobbits.

Basically, if you enjoyed the first film, this one is the (almost – and I’ll get to my personal gripe with this one) ‘perfect’ continuation with the epic Middle Earth journey.  All the characters you loved from the original return for this one, even the ones who died are given their screen time due to flashbacks and minimal sub-plots, but, due to the members of the ‘Fellowship’ taking separate paths throughout the land, now you have three different stories to follow.

All of which are skillfully woven together as the characters interact with new and interesting people.  All the new cast are great, but if there’s one reason to watch this film it’s for the computer-generated creation of the – much troubled – ‘Gollum.’ Andy Serkis ‘plays’ him thanks to his skills in a ‘motion capture’ suit, plus he does the voice and, if you ever wanted to see a 100% computer generated character steal every scene, then this is it.

Gollum is definitely the high-point for me and the special effects used to create him still hold up to this day.  I criticised ‘Fellowship’ (mildly) for its effects looking a little ‘green-screen ish’ some twenty years on and the same can be said for a few scenes in ‘The Two Towers,’ but – again – the scale of the film and how it’s all put together totally overshadows any minor gripe like that.

Most people (or those I’ve spoken to!) seem to either like the first book/film or the last the best.  For some reason ‘The Two Towers’ was always my favourite.  Which was why I was always a little annoyed to see that – in my opinion – this was the film version that had the most liberties taken with its story.  There are a couple of scenes towards the end which are definitely not based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s work and make absolutely no sense to me.  In fact, they even go as far as to totally fly in the face of the concept of the point of the movie, i.e. keeping the ring’s whereabouts a secret.  These scenes still irk me to this day, but the rest of the film is so good I can hardly claim not to enjoy it.

If you haven’t seen it, watch ‘The Fellowship’ first.  I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t make you want to watch this one, too.

9/10 almost as perfect as The Godfather