The Lord Of The Rings - The Two Towers DVD > Reviews > the lord is back

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Outstanding
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Outstanding

Advantages:	too much to catergorise !
Disadvantages:	a long sit and full attention most definitely required

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Ever since seeing 'The Fellowship of the Ring', I have eagerly been awaiting the arrival of the sequel, 'The Two Towers' When I saw the first film, I hadn't read any of The Lord of the Rings' books, I think I read a few chapters of 'The Hobbit' but I had never really got into it. But now, I'm completely hooked!

The opening scene is even more brilliant (if it is indeed possible) than the last film, and two minutes into the film, I was already on the edge of my seat! The film starts exactly where the last film ended, in fact, a little bit before. We learn exactly what happened to Gandalf after his apparent 'death'. The amazing Ian McKellan, one of my favourite actors of all time, plays Gandalf. Then again, I am slightly biased as he did begin his acting career at my school, so as well as me being mesmerized by his tremendous acting, I also see him as my mini claim to fame! Aside from that, I thought his performance in both films so far has been utterly brilliant. The part could not have gone to a more convincing actor.

In fact, the entire cast of Lord of the Rings has been fantastically picked. All delivered an extraordinary performance. I was particularly impressed by the compelling performance from Viggo Mortensen who played the brave warden, Aragorn. I have seen Viggo Mortensen in a number of films, such as the modern adaptation of 'Psycho' and 'A Perfect Murder', and i was quite unimpressed. TLOR have definitely brought out the best in Mortensen and altered my opinion of this actor, and I can now only offer him praise. Another superb actor was Bernard Hill, who played the role of King Théoden of Rohan. I have enjoyed many of this Manchester born actors’ films such as 'Titanic' and 'The Ghost and the Darkness' and I was definitely not let down by his role in this one.

There were two things in particular that I loved about 'The Two Towers'; the gorgeous Orlando Bloom, who played the role of Legolas Greenleaf, and the incredible computer generated character, Gollum. I have been hooked on Orlando since his first appearance in 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. He didn't make that much of an appearance, but he certainly made up for it in the second! Lots of orc ass kicking and a superb return with that bow & arrow of his.
As for Gollum, I can't believe that this creature is computer generated! He looks like he's, well not real as such, but as close to real as he can come! At the beginning, I was repulsed by this aggressive little... thing, and his introduction in the first film didn't really do him any favours in my opinion, but after watching the second film, I found myself wanting to take this cute little schizophrenic home. Congratulations to Andy Serkis, who did Gollum’s voice, utterly brilliant presentation of this strange, twisted little character!

All of the graphics in this film were fantastic. Obviously a lot of time and effort had been spent creating the vast orcs armies, talking trees, incredible scenery of Middle Earth and the most memorable battles ever witnessed. I was also impressed by the way that the characters differed in size and managed to look as realistic as they did. A fantastic job! Well-done boys!

Humour is more of a factor in this film, there are more one liners and witty remarks. A personal favourite of mine includes dwarf tossing! One of the best quotes of 2003 so far!

Although I was really impressed with 'The Two Towers', I was also a little disappointed. I feel that the film was let down slightly by the story. I found the first one to have a far better run of events. This one seemed to be an awful lot of fighting. Don't get me wrong, the battle scenes were stunning, but I felt that it was a bit overkill. But this can't really be helped, as this is how it goes in the book and the scene and story is being set for the third, 'The Return of the King'. Another thing that I didn't like was that there were quite a few bits in this film that were really boring. For example, Treebeard, the talking tree! I know that he was essential to the film but the slow, monotone voice brought tears to the eyes, (no offence intended to John Rhys-Davies who also played Gimli. As a dwarf, you're great, as a tree you're mind-numbingly dull). The layout of the film also got on my nerves. There were so many different story lines going on that there was about a twenty to thirty minute cycle before you actually got back to a particular one, by which time I had already forgotten what had happened! This is a very long film at three hours and you need to be alert and awake all the way through. This is one where you need to visit the lavatory and stock up on grub before hand, or you will be left extremely confused.

I have since bought 'The Two Towers' on DVD and I am sad to say that is a disappointment. A lot of the magic from the big screen is lost. The graphics are not as clear and a lot of the outstanding quality of the film is lost. Despite this, it is still a good film and worth the buy.

Aside from these things, this was an incredible film, and Peter Jackson has definitely done the book justice! I'd recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether they are a Lord of the Rings fan or not. One to be enjoyed by all!