This Is How Film's Should Be Made

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2002)

The day before going to see "The Two Towers" I watched "The Fellowship Of The Ring". This movie is truly a masterpiece, better than all of the original Star Wars movies put together. Watching it, I thought to myself, "The Two Towers can't possibly be any better than this!" Well, it was.
This review does have some mild **SPOILERS**, but nothing that will ruin your film viewing experience if you read it.
One major complaint among many, myself not included, was that nothing much actually happened in the original. Well, no one will be saying that about this movie. Three hours isn't enough to cram in all the action, and that's with the beginning and the end of the book moved to "The Fellowship Of The Rings" and "The Return Of The King" respectively. In terms of excitement, the opening alone matches the original's most thrilling moment. In fact, it expands on it. I won't explicitly spoil it. I'll just say one word: falling.
Of course, things get more and more exciting from there, with things most definitely building up to a thrilling climax. The climactic battle for Helm's Deep takes up the best part of the film's last hour, and is worth the wait. Quite possibly the greatest cinematic battle ever.

In between this great opening and climax are countless fantastic set-pieces and some great acting of a calibur rarely seen in such big-budget movies.
The story of the ring, following Sam and Frodo, is surprisingly the film's secondary story. Of course, Elijah Wood and Sean Astin are on top form as Frodo and Sam. We can see the ring is gradually beginning to overcome Frodo, and how this is tormenting him. Sam, a comic relief of sorts in part one, becomes the more heroic of the two this time round. Astin is a wonderful subtle actor. However, both get mercilessly upstaged by a computer generated character.
Gollum, trying to regain the ring, his "precioussss", is caught by the two Hobbits, and forced to act as their guide. We see the struggle betweedn the two sides of Gollum. One is Smeagol, the friendly Hobbit-like creature who wants to help his new-found master, the other is Gollum, the evil, vindictive creature whose only love is for the ring. The arguements Gollum has with himself are amusing and disturbing in equal measure, and actually display the best acting of the whole film. Andy Serkis, who voices Gollum, definitely deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and could maybe even win where Ian McKellan couldn't. I'd love to see a computer-generated acceptance speech from Gollum, but that sadly won't happen at the boring Academy Awards.
The acting is also top-notch in the film's main storyline: the battle for the people of Rohan. Viggo Mortenson has emerged as quite the action hero this time round, with Aragorn playing a key role. He has the charm, the acting chops and, yes, the fighting skills to become the next big thing. In this film, Orlando Bloom actually deserves all the teary-eyed admiration he gets from 8 year old girls everywhere. Being male, I was seriously skeptical of Legolas last year. However, in "The Two Towers" he actually kicks some ass, making mundane things like getting on a horse and going downstairs something thrilling. As Gimli the dwarf, John-Rhys Davies really comes into his own in this picture. Gimli takes up the role of comic relief in this film, and, unlike many comic relief characters (I'm not going to mention Jar Jar Binks's name) he is actually funny, relieving moments of severe tension by providing the audience with something to laugh at. It goes without saying that Sir Ian McKellan is great as Gandalf. It's a crime he didn't win an Oscar earlier this year. The three main new arrivals are Miranda Otto, Bernard Hill and Brad Dourif, as Eowyn, Theoden and Wormtongue respectively. All are great, but the best is Dourif. Wormtongue is a walking ball of slime, and every time you see him you want to reach your arms into the screen and ring his puny neck.
Special mention has to go to Christopher Lee, a true screen legend. As Saruman, Lee provides the audience with a tangible villain in addition to the lidless eye of Sauron. While in the books Saruman was quite a pathetic character, in the movies he is a genuinely chilling villain, one of the best of recent years. In part one, by merely sitting on a throne with an evil look on his face, he established himself as one of the best villains of recent years. In part two we get to see a lot more of the wizard. Not only does he have a chilling monologue, but he also has the film's best line: "There will be no dawn for men." While he does get a comeuppance of sorts in this film, I look forward to seeing what he gets up to in "The Return Of The King", and I don't know how Sauron (in physical form) will top him in terms of villainy.
The only point at which the movie slows down is when the action returns to Rivendell, with a teary-eyed Arwen trying and failing to do some scene-stealing. But even this adds depth to the movie. Before you know it, you will be left with a cliffhanger ending even more agonising than that of "The Fellowship Of The Ring." 2003 is gonna be a long year.
Okay, its different from the book, but in my opinion, the first two movies have been better than the books. And by all accounts, "The Return Of The King" is set to be even better.
10/10