Taking A Deeper Journey

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2015)

{This review is for the 179-minute theatrical release.}
The quickest way to burn three hours from your life is to sit down and watch this crisply structured, breathlessly paced, yet thematically rich dose of cinematic CPR. You will come out feeling refreshed, revived, and wondering where the time went.
It's a bleak time for the denizens of Middle Earth, the evil powers of Sauron and Saruman forming a union against the beleaguered forces of good. While a small army of men from Rohan make a forlorn stand in a mountainside redoubt, two hobbits, joined by a nasty critter who answers to the name of Gollum (Andy Serkis), make a lonely, harrowing trek into the heart of enemy territory, on a mission that seems unlikely to end in anything less than their doom.
"Do not trust to hope," is a characteristic piece of advice offered to another party of good adventurers. "It has forsaken these lands."
Director Peter Jackson reshapes the problematically structured middle novel in J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy into a stirring centerpiece for his own epic cinematic adaption. Each shot has almost a painterly quality, a classical shape and texture that informs every frame.
While Tolkien's source novel is the weakest of the saga, Jackson's film is the best of his own trilogy. Instead of long narratives, Jackson and his editors, Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen, present a triple-track approach where something is always happening, often very fast.
At the same time, the script by Jackson and his writing team plumbs story elements for drama and tension that Tolkien at times barely limned. Gollum's story is the film's emotional arc, as we see in him a tortured soul not quite beyond the reach of redemption, however dangerous. His mad lust for the Ring of Power is not only dramatic in itself, but ominous for the lead character, Frodo (Elijah Wood) who now carries the Ring and sees in Gollum the potential for similar madness in himself.
"The Two Towers" does an effective job reintroducing the characters, good and evil, we met in "The Fellowship Of The Ring" and investing all of them with qualities of deeper interest and humor to extend our investment in them. At the same time, "The Two Towers" broadens things with a slew of new characters, most especially Gollum (Serkis is never seen on screen, but he was both a voice-actor and a motion- capture artist on screen) and Faramir (David Wenham), brother of troubled Boromir seen in "Fellowship." Both Gollum and Faramir find themselves tested by the very same thing, and their different reactions help drive the rest of the film.
There are minor weaknesses in this film, most particularly a needless detour where the brave human leader Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) temporarily goes missing. Some lengthy exposition elements featuring my least favorite characters, the Elves, grate on my nerves. But the spectacle and storycraft overall are brilliant in the main, and even better, become more enjoyable when the film is watched again.
"The Two Towers" is a one-of-a-kind thrill ride that keep you as mentally stimulated as it does visually ravished.