Jackson continues to channell Tolkien

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2002)

The Two Towers: It's official, Lucas is the padawan of film makers, Peter Jackson is the master.
New Line Cinema will go down in the annals as having made a brilliant decision at a time in it's history where a gaffe could have sunken them, and we as filmgoers should be amply grateful that things fell into place the way that they have(these people that gave Jackson LotR also gave Raimi Spiderman - I think I see a trend). Now, granted, Jackson was handed one of the greatest stories ever told to bring to cinematic life, which Lucas was not, but Lucas could certainly follow some leads here on returning some humanity, lightness, and real dimensions into his upcoming swan song; after all, turnabout is fair play - Lucasfilm gave WETA their first leg up on a lot of the CGI technology prior to the Fellowship. But full marks to New Line for making some uncharacteristically shrewd moves at the studio level which are going to continue to pay large dividends over the remainder of the decade. THus far, Lord of the Rings has been all that Episodes I and II have promised to be without any of the sloppy shortcuts.
A steady barrage of well plotted action, more polished performances by a cast little in need of polish in the first film, fanatic dedication to the material by all involved, and the discerning hand of Peter Jackson and his staff bringing it all together adds up to one of those rare sequels that at least matches the original, but in some ways surpasses it.

Some have been mistakenly critical, but count me amongst those in the majority that found the way this movies hit the ground running to be a major positive. The backstory well established for all but the foolish holdouts, Jackson sees no need to build his story up, and launches right into chapter 2 of the saga with vigor. Opening with a teaser of the unseen footage of the Balrog battle from Fellowship, eyes are popped early on and make their way back into the sockets only during brief respites where the story is glued together. Really refreshing to see an epic like this done so painstakingly and with such dedication to craftsmanship without sacrificing an iota of story advancement.
My biggest fear before his first scene(wasn't kept waiting long) was that Gollum wouldn't work - CGI simply hasn't been 100% successful imo with central characters to date, but you can chalk up another breakthrough for Jackson. His wise decision in hiring Andy Serkis to not only voice the character and map out his motions, but to also perform his scenes live during filming payed off handsomely. Nothing short of groundbreaking the way Gollum fits into the movie so seamlessly.
And WETA did not lose a step either going into this second movie. The many otherworldly denizens of middle earth are brought convincingly to life on grand scales(of number and size), the locales of Barad Dur, Helmsdeep, Rohan, and Isengard are completely mesmerizing, and the battle choreographies and sequences of mass destruction are again new standard bearers for the industry.
In short, a great movie on all fronts.
4/4 stars