Movie Thoughts: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

• Released: 18 December 2002
• Directed by: Peter Jackson
• Running time: 3 h 43 min
• Rating 5/5

Synopsis

The Fellowship has broken apart. While Sam and Frodo make their way to Mordor; Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas chase the orcs that took Merry and Pippin captive. They finally end up in the kingdom of Rohan, where they must fight against an army of Saruman's Uruk Hai.

My Thoughts

For the longest time, this was my least favorite of the three. It's still one of the best movies ever made, don't get me wrong, but there used to be this time where I'd always feel like it was my least favorite of the three to sit through.

Needless to say, not anymore. I don't really know what I ever had against this movie, because it's such a strong installment. Would I call it the best out of the three? No, not really, but it's still of such a great quality that it definitely is about as good as the others. There's just bound to be a weakest installment in every movie series, and I guess Two Towers fills that gap for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But, again, it's still one of the best movies ever made. I've grown really fond of this movie after a few years of not liking it as much.

We are finally introduced to my favorite location in this movie: the kingdom of Rohan, home of the horse-lords. I just really love their aesthetic and the characters we meet there, including one of my all-time favorites, Eowyn. I like King Theoden a lot, and for course Eomer as well. 

Saruman is a very strong secondary villain and you really just feel the dread everyone feels when they have to stand against his army of ten thousand Uruk Hai. There really is no hope of winning for them until Gandalf shows up with Eomer and his forces, yet they decide to ride out and meet their enemy anyways. 

The battle of Helm's Deep is such an allround awesome siege on a stronghold. It goes on for a long time, but it never feels like it drags. It used to be really hard for me to stay engaged throughout the entire thing due to the lack of variety in the battle (battle of Pellenor Fields had much more different aspects to it, for example), but nowadays I just love it a lot. 

We also meet one of my other favorite characters in this as well, Eowyn and Faramir aside. We finallly get a good look at Gollum/Smeagol and his personality. I think that, out of the entire trilogy, he really does have the best character development from a writing point of view. He sets out on killing the Hobbits and robbing them on the Ring, but then pledges himself to Frodo, who treats him with kindness and tries to appeal to the last shred of Smeagol's humanity. This, in turn, causes the Gollum half of Smeagol to subside for a while, and Smeagol seems to genuinely care about guiding Frodo, someone who is finally kind to him and treats him as a person. But after he is captured by Faramir's forces, Gollum returns and Smeagol finally seems to give in to him and sets out on having Frodo and Sam killed, as we see in Return of the King. He's just such an unique character and any of his scenes were great to watch. Heck, I even feel genuinely bad for him in some moments, though you know he isn't always being truthful.

One thing in this movie I feel hasn't aged as well is the CGI on the Wargs. Most of the Lord of the Rings creatures have CGI that either looks really good, even today (see: Gollum) or at least looked good back then. But the Wargs are the one thing I feel haven't aged as well. They just look kind of fake and like they don't really fit the landscape they're in.

I do like the hyena-like Warg designs, though I doubt it's what Tolkien imagined them as (his description leans closer to the Wargs in The Hobbit trilogy, with them being more lupine). But regardless of designs, they just don't blend in that well with the environment and their fight scene feels more chaotic than well-choreographed, which I guess works for the scene but also doesn't make it very memorable. 

Faramir's character is quite different from how he was in the books, but I liked the change, actually. It wouldn't have been very interesting if he'd just let Frodo and Sam go and wouldn't be tempted by the Ring at all. 

Overall, I think this is just a really strong movie and absolutely deserves to be a part of the best trilogy of all time. If you really think it's too long, stick to the theatrical versions (this honestly goes for any of the three), but I for me the extended edition added even more for me to love.