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See our review of The Fellowship of the Ring |
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Each new generation takes over the mantle of older
ones, and Peter Jackson now reigns supreme as filmdom’s foremost fantasist while the Star
Wars series, now seemingly more Industrial Light & Magic’s than George
Lucas,' falls by the wayside. Which isn’t to
say Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones didn’t make
mounds of money (having grossed over $400 million and $300 million, respectively), but
rather they have not caught the popular imagination the way Jackson’s Lord of the
Rings series has. The primary difference is
that Lucas has lost his knack for telling a story, even one with plot points already
mapped out for him. He has the score, but he
just can’t hit the right notes.
Jackson’s score of course is J.R.R. Tolkien’s enormously
popular literary trilogy, The
Lord of the Rings, and the most noticeable thing about The Two Towers is
that as it moves along, it gradually diverges from the book. Aside from a visual extravaganza of an opening
that rehashes Gandalf’s encounter with the Balrog, the movie picks up right where The Fellowship of the Ring
left off. Unlike the previous film, there is
no prelude providing plot information to orient the viewer.
The single, lonely soul who hasn’t seen the first one or read the books will
probably have no idea what is going on.
Hobbits Frodo (Elijah
Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) continue heading for Mordor, kingdom of the villainous Sauron,
where they must destroy Sauron’s corrupting magic ring by casting it into a mountain
of fire. Along the way, they capture one of
the ring’s previous owners, the dilapidated Gollum (a completely digitized character
based on the movements of and voiced by Andy Serkis), who wants his Precious back. Meanwhile, fellow Hobbits, Pippin (Billy Boyd) and
Merry (Dominic Monaghan) escape from the orcs who had nabbed them and escape into the
forest of Fangorn where they encounter Treebeard (voice of John Rhys-Davies) of the race
of living trees called Ents. The main momentum
of the movie however is carried by Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom),
and dwarf Gimli (Davies again). They pursue
the orcs who have carried off Pippin and Merry until they bump into their old friend,
Gandalf (Ian McKellen), freshly rejuvenated from his battle with the Balrog. Together they try to save the peoples of Rohan
from the evil army of Sauron’s ally, the evil wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee).
Jackson departs from the book by incorporating an unnecessary battle
with orcs and warg wolves just to enhance a subplot between Aragorn and eowyn (Miranda
Otto), the niece of Rohan’s King Theoden (Bernard Hill). Also, Gondor warrior Faramir (David Wenham) is a
lot more like his brother Boromir, who perished at the end of the first installment,
instead of his own man. This results in his
dragging Frodo and company to the battle of Osgiliath, an event mentioned in the books but
at which no major character participates. Jackson’s
Two Towers also ends surprisingly early, only about two-thirds of the way into the
book.
Intercutting among three storylines throughout, Jackson can barely hold
it all together with the Pippin, Merry, and Treebeard plot suffering the most. Like the first film, The Two Towers faces
pacing problems. Again, it feels too rushed
despite its 3-hour length, and it practically jumps from action set piece to action set
piece. This was actually fixed on the DVD
extended version of The Fellowship of the Ring, which added 30 minutes of
character interaction instead of characters in action.
However, where there is character development in The Two Towers, it is very
strong and comes from unexpected sources – the side characters of Gollum and eowyn.
Ignited by Frodo’s kindness to him, one that is contrasted with
Sam’s nastiness, Gollum is in an intense battle between two opposing personalities
residing in his single body, the one that wants the ring and the one that wants the love
and companionship that has eluded him for centuries. That
all this is instilled with humor and poignancy through a computer generated character
makes it all the more amazing. Computer
graphics technology has not reached the point where Gollum actually looks real, but
Serkis’ acting makes one forget about that as Gollum comes alive. Otto does not have much screen time as eowyn, but
she makes the most of it as she falls in love with Aragorn, who himself is already taken
with elf princess Arwen (Liv Tyler).
As The Two Towers shares some of Fellowship’s
weaknesses, it also possesses its strengths, which is not surprising since all three films
were shot at the same time. Its biggest asset
again is the way Jackson makes Tolkien’s world come vibrantly alive. Cinematographer Andrew Lesnie lights the characters
so that they are much better integrated into their environments than those in Lucas’
recent Star Wars movies where the backgrounds often look completely phony. Impeccable production design (except for
Arwen’s Evenstar jewel, which looks like a toy) by Grant Major and a soaring
score by Howard Shore are indispensable to Jackson's vivid illusion. The climatic battle between Rohan and
Saruman’s forces, ten thousand strong, and the Ent siege on Saruman’s fortress,
Isengard, is as epic and spectacular as they come. The
movie could use a little more humanity, but it never lacks in eye-popping visuals.
- George Wu
"a game that captivates and
frustrates us in all the right ways"