The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) Review

 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

The Two Towers once again follows Frodo and Sam on the journey to Mordor, while the rest of the Fellowship must defend Rohan from Saruman’s army.

While the first movie was all about hope and heart, this one takes a much darker route, upping the stakes. We see the effects that the ring start to have on Frodo, making him much more paranoid of his friends and trusting of those he maybe should not. We also see the might and size of Saruman’s army at the Battle of Helm’s Deep, and the sheer will of Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, and the Rohan army, being severely outnumbered and under-skilled, in what was LOTR 300 moment.

We also get introduced to some great new characters in Faramir, King Theoden, and Gollum/Smeagle, who, along with so much of the movie, was done phenomenally by Weta Digital, learning a lot from the first movie and showing how much better they can be, and it showed. They near seamlessly blended CGI, miniatures, and real sets, which was a huge task for 2002.

The cast only seemed to get better this time around, featuring the usual greats like Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, and Viggo Mortenson, but there were also some great new emergences in Bernard Hill and Andy Serkis. Hill was wholly believable as the Rohan King Theofred, showing age but also real power. Viggo was certainly the standout in this one though, showing him going through so many motions from pain, to survival, to absolute badassery at the Battle of Helms Deep.

This time around, much of the movie is about the plight of the Rohan people, with the Fellowship being the only real protection from them and Saruman’s army.

The Two Towers increases the scale, cinematically and graphically, being a visual beauty that becomes a war story at heart, with Frodo, Sam, & Smeagle’s journey being more of a side quest, naturally, due to it’s monotonous nature of travel. Peter Jackson once again knocks it out of the park, bringing all of these fantasy elements from page to screen in what feels so natural and lifelike, making the world of Middle Earth feel so lived in and important, especially in this dark battle for power.

10/10