I'm Finally a Convert

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2003)

`Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' turns out to be a mighty impressive second installment in the J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy  and this from someone who wasn't exactly the greatest fan of the first installment, `Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.' That film, for all its visual splendor, narrative ambition and epic scope, ultimately, turned into little more than a conventional monster movie, with the characters battling one strange creature after another to the point where the film finally became a crashing bore long before its three-hour running time was up. `The Two Towers,' though equally long (one minute shy of three hours, to be exact), doesn't fall into this monotonous narrative pattern, thereby allowing for more variety in its story and more depth in its characterizations.
As someone who knows next to nothing about the specifics of the trilogy, I must say that the story can be a bit hard to follow for the non-initiate. We aren't always sure who is who or just how the battle lines in the various good-vs.-evil conflicts fall out. This has the unfortunate effect of making the early stretches of the film confusing and, at times, downright incomprehensible. Luckily, the plot strands begin to straighten themselves out after not too long a time, and one can at least follow the unfolding action well enough to become absorbed in the spectacle on screen. And impressive that spectacle is, with director Peter Jackson once again creating an entire fantasy world with the help of his cinematographer, Andrew Lesnie, as well as his various art directors, scenic designers and special effects wizards.
One of the reasons `The Two Towers' triumphs over `Fellowship of the Ring' is that this newest film provides us with more conflicted, more complex characters. This is especially true in the case of Frodo Baggins, the hobbit who's been entrusted with the powerful ring, but who must now struggle to avoid becoming taken over by its evil power. Similarly, Gollum, a loathsome but strangely compelling creature who befriends Frodo in an attempt to wrest the ring from him, suffers with bouts of schizophrenic near-madness as part of him wants simply to do the right thing, and, thereby, garner acceptance and companionship in the process. These two characters bring some added depth to all the surface magnificence of eye-filling vistas and heart-pounding adventure and battle scenes.
Not being familiar with Tolkien's novels, I cannot say to what extent the film is or is not faithful to the original. I will, therefore, simply state that `The Two Towers' is a powerful and moving saga that can stand on its own as a first-rate movie-going experience. Having nodded through the first installment of the series, I was not exactly looking forward to Part Two. Now, having seen Part Two, I can't wait to see Part Three.