The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers DVD Review (Elijah Wood) Empire Movies

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS DVD REVIEW

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(New Line Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

9/10

Blair

I always have a hard time remembering that this is the middle part of a story, not a sequel but the middle part. Maybe that's why when I first saw this, I wasn't as impressed with it as I wanted to be. I forgot that this wasn't a sequel. It makes a difference to keep it in that perspective. Then you can understand the structure and positioning of this movie a lot better. This movie is three separate stories, going in three different directions and I think that this may be its main weakness. This is the middle chapter of a movie. It's the hour after the half hour introduction (Fellowship) and before the half hour conclusion (Return of the King) that any normal two hour movie would have. So imagine walking into a movie half an hour after it started, and leaving thirty minutes before the end. See what I mean?

Towers picks up exactly where Fellowship ended - Sam and Frodo headed to destroy the ring in the fires of Mount Doom and the remaining members of the fellowship off to save Merry and Pippin from the Uruk-Hai. This is where the split in storylines becomes permanent as Frodo and Sam continue their quest, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas join up with the people of Rohan to protect them from Saruman and his invading army at Helms Deep and Merry and Pippin join the Ents to bring the battle to Saruman.

I did like the fact that the movie just gets right into it, without any lengthy synopsis. To re-cap what happened, well that would have not only been pointless, but rather silly as well. Director Peter Jackson uses all of his three hours to build on the characters from the first movie. We see the relationship between Sam, Frodo and Gollum deepen and culminate with an amazing argument between Gollum and Smeagol (Gollum's real name). The pity that Frodo showed him, in hope that after all those years with the ring there is still some humanity in Gollum, is what Frodo hopes for as we see the ring continuing to to take its toll. Frodo needs to know if he is turned completely by the ring, that he can come back from it. Gollum, in return for Frodo's kindness, guides them to Mount Doom.

Much has been said about Gollum since the release of this movie, and quite honestly he probably is the best CGI character ever created for the big screen. Andy Serkis does a wonderful job of providing the spirit of this character. Not just that, but the FX from WETA are just amazing - better than any other movie released. Gollum wasn't viewed as a CG character as was Yoda or Jar Jar, but he seemed like a real person. Gollum had a soul and that made him real on the screen.

With the subtle relationships Jackson creates, he also has no problems with battles on an epic scale. Yes, the battle of Helms Deep was amazing, one of the best large battle scenes since Braveheart.

As for the DVD, well the look of this movie is amazing. The artwork for the menus is gorgeous. I love the fully animated menus and at first I thought that 53 chapters was a bit excessive, but for this movie it seems perfect. Less scanning to find the spot you are looking for. I prefer animated chapters on the menu, but with everything else this DVD has on it (like a three hour movie) a few things had to be sacrificed. I also would have like to have a commentary track by Peter Jackson to gain his insight; I actually like listening to him talk about LOTR, as he does in the special features. I guess I will have to wait for the extended.

The video looked great. I didn't notice any problems with the transfer and the images were sharp. Now, this is one of the first movies I have watched with my new surround sound system. Wow. Let me tell you what a difference it makes in the sound. The layering of sound, the using of channels left right, front or back makes the experience all the more enjoyable. This movie sounds just as great as it looks.

To be honest I don't really go for the special features that DVDs offer. I mostly like the deleted scenes and don't bother with all the other stuff. But for this movie, I was eager to dive into them. Obviously I watched the preview for Return of the King first, and damn it I hate Peter Jackson! When I saw 10 minutes for this preview I thought COOL! But it turned out to only be a minute or so of actual footage, the rest was behind the scenes stuff. Talking with people etc... Still, some of the preview was pretty cool.

A nice addition to the disc was the Long and Short of it, by Sean Astin. He made a little short film that has absolutely nothing to do with the LOTR story, but all to do with teamwork. It's sort of an homage to the teamwork experienced on this movie shoot. However, for some reason they included the making of this as well. Now, although it was funny at points and generally enjoyable, it was just too darn long! It was longer than the actual short.

Then there were the usual DVD extras - behind the scenes look at Towers, the interviews, that thank God do not overlap (well, not too much anyway) I hate watching two "different: behind the camera programs only to have the people being interviewed say the same thing.

The extras on this DVD are excellent, and informative. I did think that pushing the EA Game of Towers with a preview for it on here was a little much and while it looked good it still seemed like a cash grab. (Kind of like the booklet in the DVD case where you can order all the rings, swords sets by every character in the movie.) The cast interviews were very good. You don't realize how an experience like this can change people, or bring them together. A three year project can do that to the cast members. Watching them become a family was a nice touch.

After I watched this movie, I felt as though the release of the Return of the King would make this a better picture - when you can see all three, and see how they properly relate to each other. That may be so, but as an individual release it still must stand on its own. After watching it again on DVD, I seemed to like the movie more.

Features
On the Set - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Return to Middle Earth
The Long and Short of It - A Short Film Directed By Sean Astin
The Making of The Long and Short of It
Eight Featurettes Originally Created for LordOfTheRings.net
Ten-Minute Behind-the-Scenes Preview of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Original Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots
"Gollum's Song" Music Video by Emiliana Torrini
Preview of Electronic Arts' Video Game The Lord of the Rings: The Return to the King
An Inside Look at the Special Extended DVD Edition of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Video
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Audio
Dolby Digital EX 5.1 Surround Sound
Stereo Surround Sound

Subtitles
English
Spanish
Closed-Captioned

Release Date
August 26, 2003

Rating
PG-13

Length
179 mins.

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