Ephemeris of the Mind (Film Review) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Time to read: 2 min read
Movie Poster
What are we holding onto, Sam?
That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
Past Middle-earth film reviews:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
- The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Review
This is the second live-action film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings novels. The story continues as the individual members of the Fellowship pursue their goals; Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) continue their journey to the heart of Mordor while Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) leads the rest of the Fellowship against the evil Wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee).
The story does diverge a bit from the book, such as focusing on the internal romantic conflicts of Arwen (Liv Tyler) and having Haldir (Craig Parker) and the Elves at Helm’s Deep. The changes are benign and actually add some flavour to the film. The acting is amazing and the villains really steal the show. Christopher Lee’s Saruman and Andy Serkis’ Gollum were captivating to watch. While there were certainly main characters, the film felt almost like an ensemble cast. I particularly enjoyed watching the budding bromance between Orlando Bloom's Legolas and John Rhys-Davies' Gimli. The CGI, as with the first film, has aged relatively well and this film is visually stunning even today. The Ents were nicely rendered.
This film was a bit more fast-paced than its predecessor and contained much more large-scale action sequences.
Conclusion
A fantastic follow-up to the first film.