"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

To continue on the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I saw “TheTwo Towers”. After watching “The Fellowship”, I was told that not only was it the worst of the three (but still amazing), but it’s the movie with the least amount of action. This got me excited for the next two movies. As long as they keep me hooked as the first one, I can’t find a reason to complain. After the jump I dive into Middle Earth once more.

The story continues as the two hobbits, Frodo and Sam continue on their way to Mordor with their guide Gollum. As the teams have split, Merry and Pippin have been abducted by the Uruk-hai who have grown stronger. Saurman has been upping is army to prepare to first attack Rohan and then latter attacking Gondor for the Ring. Our three heroes, Aragon, Gimli and Legolas are hot on the Uruk-hai trail to retrieve Merry and Pippin. But their help is needed at Rohan to defend the city. As their men dwindle in numbers, both new and old alliances spring up to help out Rohan.

The huge battle at Helms Deep.

Talk about an action packed movie, Peter Jackson jammed in so much content into the three hour movie.  Even though the story gets more elaborate, it never feels overwhelming. Everything is explained so well that even a person who’s never picked up a LOTR book can follow along. But that’s not all, the story feels epic. With all the different characters, different creatures and all the sub plotline, epic is the only word that comes to mind.

But the epicness doesn’t stop at the story, it continues when it comes to the battles. “The Two Towers” has a lot more action than “The Fellowship”.  Whereas the first movie really just set all the pieces up, Two Towers connects them in brutal warfare. The battles are grand and endless, especially the last one at Helm's Deep. Action at every corner of the screen, each scene better than the last. From the arrows raining from the sky, the sounds of swords colliding to Gimli and Legolas counting higher and higher to see who will reach the highest kill count. There is no slow scene in the whole movie.

Gollum is adorable, in his creepy way.

In the first movie, Gollum didn’t have that much presence. But in the second movie, he is as big as any of the other heroes. He sort of grows on me, first being a creepy creature and now he is this interesting man who becomes nearly loveable.  I guess it’s not Gollum I love so much, its more Smeagol, Gollum in hobbit form. He has this certain charm to him, almost innocent. 

Even with all the bloody wars and minutes of running along an open field, the movie is beautiful. There are astonishing exterior shots of New Zealand Middle Earth and impressive CGI. It’s awesome to see so much CGI but never scaling down the quality of it. Even though a fair amount of the movie is dark and gritty, the movie still pops out in my eye.

I honestly cannot wait to see the last movie. I’m excited to see how this movie wraps up, how the final war plays out and how Frodo and Sam destroy the ring, assuming they actually do destroy the ring. Even though “Two Towers” didn’t feel it felt off with a cliff-hanger, I’m just excited to see how it ends. I just know that it can only get better.