new era

Rating: Null/10 (19 December 2002)

The tidal wave of reviews has begun for Two Towers. I won't add much to the fray except to say that TT is to the 21st century (so far) what Star Wars was to the late 70s.
George Lucas must cry and tear his napkin while watching Peter Jackson's trilogy of Tolkien's work. Where the original Star Wars really was able to take us to an entirely new place in time and space and imagination, his current projects are flimsy stories used as support structures for visual effects that can't get out of the way and commercials for an unending stream of "collectibles."
TT, on the other hand, recaptures the magic of the Star Wars era. As with Episode 4, the stunning visuals *complement* the story, they don't overpower it. There is a humanity to the characters (particularly Gollum/Smeagol) that Phantom Menace and AOTC sorely lacked. And with the LOTR series, people are eager to see the next installment, even though many of them know the story already. With the current crap...uh, I mean "crop" of Lucas films, the story is unknown, but who cares? The story is barely there, anyway. Fans are obligated to rush out to see the next SW movie, and they are obligated to rave about whatever garbage Lucas throws up onscreen, even though they are keenly aware of the gnawing sensation that they are being cheated.
LOTR doesn't cheat the viewer. Three hours is not enough time to tell even half of what is in each volume in the series, but there is a complete absence of filler, and the three hours breeze by without sacrificing the crucial elements.
To borrow a line from a previous success, the LOTR saga truly IS "a new hope."