Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers is so precious, but gees, it's a hard film to get through.

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2013)

Don't get me wrong, Director Peter Jackson's Lord of the Ring's films are all well-done films, but the pacing of these films are just way too slow. Even with Two Towers being the shortest of the three films, 179 minutes is a very long time, to sit down and watch a film. By the time, you get to the end of the film, you just witness, a lot of things happen on screen, but not much, if that make sense. A lot of things could be cut down, in the editing room, even more. It's like being in the middle of a mile run. You glad you went this far, but it's not done yet, you got another half mile and you're starting to feel a bit tired. Since, this film is the middle of the trilogy, there is no beginning nor end, for that, reason, it's hard to say if the movie is great or just OK. In my opinion, The Two Towers is just alright. The Two Towers is the second volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings. It is preceded by The Fellowship of the Ring and followed by The Return of the King. It is book III: The Treason of Isengard and IV: The Journey to Mordor AKA the Journey of the Ringbearers or The Ring Goes East in the book series. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers arguably contains the most book to film major alterations, but the movie mostly follows the books, very close, mixing the two, but unlike the book starts, the movie starts a little bit later as 2001's Fellowship took the first chapter of this book opening as its ending. Instead, we get a cool new intro with Gandalf (Ian McKellen) fighting the Balrog monster from the last movie. We come into the film, after the break down of the fellowship, with smaller groups of characters going on their own adventures and story arches intercut with each other. Frodo (Elijah Woods) & Sam (Sean Astin) continuing their journey and meeting Gollum (Andy Serkis) on the way. Gollum is the best new character, they introduce into this film. Andy Serkis is amazing actor, and he puts out the best motion CGI capture acting, I ever saw. Since, there was a decision to leave Shelob for the third movie meant that Faramir (David Wenham) had to become an obstacle for Frodo and Sam's journey. This change was indeed different than the book. It does add conflict, but gees... it slows the plot down. Frodo is the everyman character, because he lack power, he is the best one to carry the ring throughout the film. His real challenge is to bear the ring without giving in to its temptations. This resistance is Frodo's inner journey, in which his pure heart is constantly under assault by his darker yearnings for power. It had some pretty powerful symbolism here between Faramir, Frodo, Sam and Gollum. I do have a problem with Frodo & Sam's friendship. I have nothing against gays, but there is a huge different between friendship and being in love. It's obvious Tolkien wanted to show the strength of friendship, so I don't think it was intentional, but it's still hard to ignore that it comes off as a gay relationship. While this is going on, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys Davies) find themselves fighting the Orcs invasion at Helm's Deep and helping the war-torn nation of Rohan. While in the book, Helm's Deep is a small battle. In this film, it's the big climax of the film. It's one of the best battle scenes in film, I ever witnessed. I can do without the small awful cheesy things, like the heroes mowing down hundreds of Orcs without much battle scars. I can do without Legolas being too perfect like, shield surfing and only speak in exposition. I couldn't stand Gimli being pull into too much comedy relief role. Also, glad to see Arwen (Liv Tyler) was not in the battle scenes in the final version, as they film her earlier in it fighting alongside Aragorn. I can still do without Aragorn's life is now tied to the Fate of the Ring bit. It makes little to no sense. I understand that they (the producers) were trying to make anti-ring symbol with her character as a sign of hope, but it doesn't work. The movie is more about Aragon rise to become king and presented a coming to age story for males. Merry (Dominic Monaghan) & Pippin (Billy Boyd) end up encountering the giant treelike Ents and trying to stop Saruman's (Christopher Lee) army at Isengard. Environment themes are question here. Still, the whole Treebeard part were a bit boring. One thing, I hate about Lord of the Rings are the cheap fake out deaths scenes. Aragorn, Frodo, and others. As much as I love seeing Gandalf again, his death scene in the last movie was supposed to be impactful. For him, to come back makes it seem like you can cheat death here. I blame it on Tolkien. I didn't like the whole Jesus Christ metaphor with his character. Besides Boromir (Sean Bean), does any main character dies in this movie. The movie lose a bit of its sense of danger without any major deaths. Everybody seems nearly invincible. Water seems to be a symbol of rebirth in this film. Gandalf, Aragorn, and Frodo were save by large bodies of water. Similarly, Saruman's tower loses its power when its plain is flooded. Like a baptized, it's free from sin. Even the elves depart Middle-earth on a boat and sail out to a great body of water. The film has a lot of Christianity themes. The music by Howard Shore is amazing. Overall: Good visual film that can be a bit confusing. Just hard to get through all the themes, and all the characters arches.