Influential, larger-than-life movie that brings depth and humanity to the fantasy story

Rating: 10/10 (28 March 2017)

The Two Towers is one of the biggest and most successful sequels ever. It's not really even a sequel in the sense that the word is usually used, because The Lord of the Rings movies were filmed back to back and were always intended to be a single colossal story. Other successful sequels (Terminator 2, Aliens, The Godfather Part 2, even The Empire Strikes Back) are follow-ups to self-contained stories. The Lord of the Rings was largely unprecedented in that the creators knew in advance that there would be three movies to tell their story. It isn't that uncommon nowadays but in the early 2000's it was a big deal. The Lord of the Rings functions as a 9-hour movie (or 10-hour if you watch the extended edition).
The Two Towers isn't recommended to be watched on its own. But if you've seen the other movies and want to revisit it, The Two Towers does have its own arc, although the story goes on the central conflicts are resolved.
The last part, The Return of the King, won 11 Oscars and is regarded as one of the greatest movies ever (currently sitting at the 8th spot on the IMDb Top 250 list), but I think that movie is too bloated and blinded by special effects. I prefer The Two Towers. This part introduces new characters and settings and ups the stakes, while retaining the humanity and groundedness of the first part.
The Two Towers is known for its exploration of the country of Rohan and its people. They have an iconic piece of theme music, you get chills just remembering it. Their people is a proud and old one, designed to be stylistically reminiscent of Old Anglo-Saxons or Celts, yet we get the sense that they live in the shadow of Gondor where the real power of Men lies. They fight the corruption of the traitorous wizard Saruman and his orc army. They bring depth to the fantastical world: good and evil both have various forms.
The Rohan story is really only half of the movie, the other half follows the Hobbits Frodo and Sam through abandoned Gondorian country, hindered by the noble yet struggling hero Faramir and aided by the treacherous Gollum, a wonder of CGI special effects who largely influenced future filmmakers.