A grandeur of scope that is seldom seen!

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2002)

As a quick aside, I find myself amazed at many of the negative reviews which come off as angry/spiteful that a movie could generate the kind of buzz and near slavish fandom that the LoTR trilogy has to date. Feh.
While The Two Towers doesn't quite have the visceral impact of Fellowship, if for no other reason than the newness that FoTR brought (not quite the drought of high fantasy that existed when FoTR hit the scene), the depth of story and the strong emotional energy truly push the limits of the genre. How to classify a fantasy film, that has strong action elements, an engaging romance, and all other sorts of fun turmoil? This is one film that's hard to pigeonhole, unless perhaps you simply want to title it an epic, ala the classics like Spartacus, Ben Hur, Braveheart, et al.
From the wrench internal struggles of Gollum/Smeagol, to the near hopeless love of Aragorn and Arwen (and don't forget Éowyn), to Théoden seeing his world crumble before his eyes while he tries to save what he can of his people... it's almost as if the action is simply a beautiful backdrop to a deep and engaging drama. Not something you see too often in a standard sword and sorcery flick.
Add the masterful performances of Viggo Mortenson, Sir Ian McKellan and John Rhys Davies ("Nobody tosses a dwarf!"), I can find very little fault with this second installment. The only complaints I can muster are a little *VERY* obvious CG work (some of the Ent scenes are a bit iffy), and the fact that the music score seemed very derivative of the first movie without having nearly the same impact.
Sure I'll be tired at work today (12:01am showing), but well worth the effort :)
9.7 / 10