Even Better Than The Book (Because Of The Battles)

Rating: 9/10 (10 March 2017)

I have read the LOTR trilogy on a couple of different occasions. Each time, I struggled to get through "The Two Towers". Was it because it is a bad book? Certainly not. However, Tolkien's tales of Middle Earth battles are better "seen than imagined", so to speak, and that is where Peter Jackson comes in.
For a basic plot summary, "Two Towers" is split into three separate narratives:
-Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) continue their quest for the fires of Mordor. As they approach the black city, they are formerly introduced to Gollum (or is it Smeagle?!), the former owner of the Ring who has as many different motives in his mixed-up brain as one can imagine.
-As Sauron and Saruman (Christopher Lee) unleash their armies onto the land of Middle Earth, the fellowship of Gandalf (Ian McKellen), now White instead of Grey, Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) must begin their stand in Rohan with the Battle of Helm's Deep.
-Finally, wayward hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) have quite an eventful film, eventually meeting up with the Ents (giant tree-people) and leading a motion to storm Saruman's fortress at Isengard.
Whereas "Fellowship" was all about adventure and laying the groundwork of an incredible story, "Towers" takes a bit of a different tact but still manages to enthrall viewers for the full three hour run-time. While the battles fought in Tolkien's Middle Earth are indeed epic even in the novel, there is just something about seeing the seething Orcs & steadfast resistance that makes it all the more incredible. Though it has been nearly ten years since the film was released in theaters, very few (if any) movies since have created better battle-action scenes.
Almost worth the price of admission alone, however, is the character of Gollum (voiced by Andy Serkis). When Tolkien first created the character in his book "The Hobbit", he painted a very horrifying picture of the sort of abominable creature Gollum must be. View computer animation and incredible voice acting, this film perfectly captures that creepiness and provides perhaps the best moments of the entire movie. Gollum is even given a sort of sympathetic turn, as only Frodo can understand how corrupting the power of "The Precious" can be.
Overall, "The Two Towers" is not a letdown whatsoever from the first installment. The quest to destroy the One Ring continues to take new twists/turns, while viewers are also given an inside glimpse into what all the fighting is truly for...to save the great land of Middle Earth and all its inhabitants/creatures. There are very few films that can sustain my interest for a full three hours with no waning, but this is certainly one of them.