Choppy and Uneven

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2002)

I don't know what compels audiences to sit through "The Two Towers" (TTT), especially when Peter Jackson's directing is uneven, the storyline choppy, and the movie endlessly long (nearly 3 hours). In the book, many events unfold simultaneously, but to depict Tolkien's finely crafted synchronicity takes a directorial finesse that Jackson just doesn't have in TTT. Though the special effects and musical score are very impressive, when a film relies heavily on these elements rather than narrative drive to evoke emotions and to move the story forward, you know the film is floundering. Several vistas of New Zealand's majestic geography are accompanied by equally evocative music. But whether the shots of the landscape were ill-timed or just too numerous, most of these scenes failed to convey any emotional intensity. In fact, the audience is left feeling a bit bored by it all. An example of better use of music and landscape shots is in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" (CTHD). It wasn't that CTHD had better scenery or more dramatic music, but that these scenes came at appropriate times and did not look awkwardly placed. Jackson's camera work also leaves much to be desired. The camera pans in and out at breakneck speed, naturally taking advantage of the immersive experience of a large movie screen, but the camera moves so quickly at times that the audience doesn't get a chance to form an emotional bond with characters. The sense of intimacy one tries to develop with characters is crippled when the camera zooms out precisely at the moment when we are starting to get to know them.
Though the directing is nothing to brag about, TTT does have a few things to applaud. The special effects are truly amazing and several characters are well-developed in the script.