Review of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) by Charlie P — 29 Mar 2018

As the forces of Sauron and Saruman (Christopher Lee) plot to wipe out all humans in Middle-Earth, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gimli (John Rhys-Davis) and the newly revived Gandalf the White (Ian McKellen) must save the kingdom of Rohan from the forces of Isengard, while at the same time, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) are forced to rely on the One Ring's previous bearer, a small tormented creature named Gollum (Andy Serkis) who hides dark secrets....

Despite having a less linear narrative than the first film with three plot lines revolving around Frodo and Sam's journey, Aragorn's quest and the comic relief Hobbits Merry (Dominic Moughaun) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) encountering Treebeard (Also John Rhys-Davis) and the treelike Ents, all of these plots, although the latter one tends to drag a bit, all succeed in futher developing the characters as Frodo starts to grow closer to the Ring, Merry starts taking responsibility and Aragorn embracing his role as the future saviour of humankind. The population of the home of the Horse Lords, Rohan such as the reluctant King Theoden (Bernard Hill), the slimy Grima Wormtongue (Brad Dourif) and the shieldmaiden Ewoyn (Miranda Ottoman) help to establish both the frail, yet hopeful role that humanity can have while also giving the audience the chance to fully explore a human culture in a world populated by fantastical creatures.

Although the score is amazing and the setpieces such as the infamous Battle of Helms Deep are stunning to look at, the biggest achievement in terms of visual effects comes in the form of Gollum. Being the first character in a live-action film to filmed in the revolutionary preformance capture system, Andy Serkis's physical and emotional performance captures both the good and evil sides of the tormented creature, with the conversation sequence being one of the most intense psychological sequences put to film ever.

Overall, despite the Treebeard scenes sometimes dragging the film down, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is still masterful filmmaking in terms of worldbuilding and character development and helped audiences get excited enough for the epic conclusion...