Directed by:
Peter Jackson
Starring:
Elijah Wood …. Frodo Baggins
Ian McKellen …. Gandalf
Viggo Mortensen …. Aragorn
Andy Serkis …. Gollum/Sméagol
Sean Astin …. Sam
Billy Boyd …. Pippin
Dominic Monaghan …. Merry
Orlando Bloom …. Legolas
John Rhys-Davies …. Gimli/Voice of Treebeard
Bernard Hill …. Theoden
David Wenham …. Faramir
Christopher Lee …. Saruman
Brad Dourif …. Grima Wormtongue
Hugo Weaving …. Elrond
Liv Tyler …. Arwen
Cate Blanchett …. Galadriel
New Line Cinema Presents A Film Directed By Peter Jackson. Written By Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair And Peter Jackson. Based On The Novel By J.R.R. Tolkien. Running Time: 179 Minutes. Rated PG-13 (For Epic Battle Sequences And Scary Images). Released on DVD: August 29, 2006
“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something. … That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for. “
– Samwise Gamgee
Lets face facts about The Lord of the Rings, I highly doubt that anyone reading this review has never seen, read, or at least gotten the jist of the plot from those who have done one of the previous two options. The films have become a part of pop culture, been acclaimed as some of the best films not only of their respected years, but of all-time. The movies have made their way to DVD twice already, appeared on both premium cable networks like Starz (stop laughing, Starz counts as premium cable … some times) and lesser networks like TBS. Making their way down to even UPN recently. It’s nearly impossible to avoid this series.
In my review for The Fellowship, I included a brief explanation of what the story is, and it’s still pretty much the same. While that was the start of the journey, The Two Towers is where we began to see the courage and heroism in each character. By this point the fellowship has disbanded, and the remaining characters have branched off in to three separate journeys. Their missions are still all moving towards the same goal; not allowing Sauron to build his army once again, and to make sure he doesn’t obtain the one ring.
Sam and Frodo continue their quest to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom, and they’re now between the two towers, unable to turn back but have no idea of what lies ahead of them. The closer they get to their goal, Frodo is beginning to succumb to the rings power. They encounter Gollum, who has been following them since they left the Shire and was one of the rings previous holders. He was once a hobbit like Sam and Frodo, but his obsession for the ring has turned him in to a creature. He’s now building a divide in their friendship that could change the fate of the ring.
Where we last left off with Merry and Pippin, they had diverted the Orcs attention away from Sam and Frodo so they could get the ring out of harms way, but in doing so found themselves captured. Here they manage to find a way to escape and soon are left with Treebeard, a tree Ent , and must convince him and his kind to join in the battle to save Middle Earth.
Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas and newly reincarnated Gandalf are off to see King Théoden to warn him of the impending enemy that has his kingdom in its sights. Théoden has been under Saruman’s control for a long time now, and his kingdom has lost all the power over its land. When Gandalf frees him from the evil curse he informs him of what has happened and that the men must flee Rohan with all the women and children, and take shelter at Helms Deep. The location of the films climactic battle.
Even with the amount of detail Tolkein put in his books, creating an entirely tangible world on screen isn’t a simple task. In order to get his crew on the same page, Peter Jackson told them that in order to make Middle Earth look real they had to treat it as if it were a lost world. Taking every artifact and treating it as if it once existed. Doing so just adds that extra layer of subtle believability, and it shows in the film. But above all else, it’s the use of New Zealand as their back drop and the beautiful cinematography that were the final key ingredients that the crew needed in order to bring Middle Earth to life.
Gollum was another huge task for the film team to fully realize, as their only option for the character was photo-realistic CGI. Which was — and still is — a relatively new way of film magic, the only other films to have used it up to that point were Dragonheart and Star Wars Episode I. The character would, of coarse, be celebrated as one of modern films greatest achievement – which I’m sure makes up for the countless hours put in to making the character so believable. His voice and movements were recorded by actor Andy Serkis, who also would do the motion capture in Jackson’s 2005 version of King Kong.
When it was first released, many fans of the novel were outraged at certain liberties Jackson took with the story, which is the opposite reaction they gave to Fellowship. But much like the Fellowship‘s Extended Edition, this one corrects almost every major mistake fans were upset about.
The Two Towers is one of the few (and I do mean few) sequels worthy of referring to The Godfather Part II when comparing it to its predecessor. The film really benefits from the well established good vs evil story, both heroes and villains are built up as on par adversaries. So the one to walk away is the man who’s driven enough to fight for what he believes in. Which I think is what really pulls viewers in, the story is told in a way where our heroes are needed to step up or else everything would be lost, and as Sam says, “Those were the stories that stayed with you.”
Theatrical Edition: 9.5/10
Extended Edition: 10/10
Video:
(Presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen)
Once again, a marginal step up from the previous two-disc release, thanks to it being put on a DVD-18. There seems to be either a very thin layer of film grain on the release, or a compression issue with very noticeable digital noise reduction. I can’t quite tell, but it seems like the latter due to the sheer amount of information packed on to the disc.
Something that I noticed on this set – that I hadn’t seen on the new Fellowship one – was that sometimes the seamless branching would hiccup and show one or two seconds of a scene that wasn’t intended. Then jump back to what was originally playing. I would rewind the scene to see if this was an isolated incident, but when I did the problem would be gone so it’s nothing serious. It only happened 2 or 3 times, but it seemed important enough to note here.
Audio:
(English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and 2.0 Stereo Surround Sound)
Both of these audio options appear to be the exact same ones used on the Extended Edition set. With the audio spread over two sides, the magnificent score by Howard Shore is given plenty of space to sound its absolute best. While still not as enveloping as the Extended Editions DTS 6.1 audio track, the 5.1 EX displays the film’s audio the best it can given the way the DVD was pressed. Overall I would say it has a slight advantage on the older two-disc DVD, but only due to the film being spread over two sides.
Extras:
The Two Towers: Behind the Scenes (1:46:17) – The majority of what is shown here is yet again comprised of footage already seen on the old DVD releases. Repackaged in to a far less engaging documentary. It does, however, have a slightly better flow than the Fellowship’s new documentary. This one is able to break itself up in to three separate parts and cover each story in the movie along with the sets, crew, and special effects for each one. The actual NEW footage shown is everything that didn’t have a place or purpose the first time around and were left un-shown for clear reasons. Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd hamming it up to the cameras are the most entertaining things present here. Over all, this is just a clear case of New Line desperately trying to squeeze the last few dollars from the series.
| InsidePulse’s Ratings for Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – Two Disc Limited Edition | |
The Inside Pulse
There isn’t much reason to buy this new release, sure you’re able to own both versions of the film in one package, but the volume of useful information you lose by not picking up the 4-disc set isn’t worth it. Besides, if you want the theatrical cuts so bad, Wal*Mart usually has them in stock for around ten dollars each. If your someone on a tight budget, I could see this as something worth picking up, but for a couple bucks extra you can get the true definitive copy of this film. If all your interested in the new documentary on disc two, then a rental is your best choice.
