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Reviews - The Two Towers |
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It's hard to believe that a year has
passed since The Lord of the Rings first hit the screens. For some
reason the year has literally flown by. Maybe it's because of all the
highly anticipated films for 2002 or maybe I'm just getting old. Either
way, before I knew it The Two Towers was already here. This was good
news considering that The Fellowship of the Ring was such a good movie
and the adventures of Frodo and the gang was something I've looked
forward to seeing on screen since I was a young lad.
In this second installment, the movie begins with a bit of a flashback
involving Gandalf's battle with the Balrog. Now if anyone's seen the
commercials, it pretty much ruins it for those who haven't read the
book. Gandalf is alive. For the love of the ring why they had to show
this in the commercials is beyond me, but he's alive and comes back as
Gandalf the White.
Anyways the story continues with Frodo (Wood) and Sam (Astin) traveling
towards Mount Doom where they are attacked and capture the schizophrenic
Gollum (aka Smeagol), a creature of skin, bones and malicious intent
(well at least half of him anyways). They capture the wiry creature and
force him to act as their guide through the treacherous terrain to get
to the Gates of Mordor.
While they are doing this, the other members of the Fellowship, Aragorn
the noble Ranger (Mortensen), Legolas the Elf (Bloom), and Gimli the
Dwarf (Rhys-Davies), are running to try and rescue the other two Hobbits
of the Fellowship, Merry and Pippin.
One thing leads to another and the three are pulled into help protect
the Rohan from destruction from Saruman and Sauron (okay, more Saruman
since Sauron is still an eye in this movie). And Merry and Pip are found
riding the back of a giant Ent trying to enlist his aid.
I would love to say that when I saw this movie, my jaw dropped and the
only thought that would come to mind is Amazing! Spectacular! WOW! But
sadly, such a grandiose use of hyperbole would be out of place here.
This movie in my opinion was NOT as good as The Fellowship of the Ring.
Not even by a country mile.
Starting with Frodo, who I had the biggest problem with in the first
film, he was actually an improvement over the first film. He didn't come
across as such a wimp like he did in the first one and actually showed a
little more dimension. Still, considering that he is the key that holds
the epic together, he is still lacking.
As for Gollum… the job done by Serkis was good but I kept getting
distracted by the special effects in the movie. At times it looks good,
while at others it just looked horrible. The great debate that Gollum
went through between his good and bad side actually drew a chuckle. I'm
not sure if that was the intended reaction. Probably not.
Continuing on with the special effects, while I liked the acting job for
Treebeard, that was some absolutely horrible effects. The same would go
for the Orcs on the Worgs attack. The digitally rendered characters just
didn't seem to have any weight. The parts of Treebeard that were
mechanical did work well though.
The acting by the three non-hobbit heroes was solid stuff. In
particular, Aragorn was excellent, continuing the great work he did in
the first one. In contrast to Frodo, his presence, like a star center in
hockey, seems to make the others around him better. And the others
around him including Legolas and Gandalf all do admirable jobs in their
roles. Though I would have liked to have seen more of Gandalf - but what
can you do - that's the story. I would critique Mortensen only in the
scenes that involved Liv Tyler's Arwen. There was just no chemistry
there. One other comment on the characters - the role of Gimli the
Dwarf. I was not impressed by the use of Gimli in the movie. In the
novels, he comes across as a tough fierce fighter with a poetic heart
and is one of my more favorite characters. In the movie, while they show
his fierce nature in battle, they also make him the butt of too many
short jokes and fail to show his noble quiet inner strength. Overall
however the characters are strong and fairly well rounded. Unfortunately
by its very nature, the movie had to focus more on the action than the
characters.
This brings me to the last part, the Battle of Helm's Deep, the biggest
action sequence in the movie. It's almost the most important part of the
movie, as they chose to go with action rather than characterization.
Thus its ability to deliver a convincing threat of evil and the
desperation felt by the heroes are needed to help deliver the movie. So
does it work? Well….no.
While some of the battle scenes were reminiscent of Braveheart or
Gladiator, they weren't even close in terms of quality. The strategy
underlying the battle was poor at best. Castle Defense 101 would pretty
much state that you barricade the only true weakness in your defense,
the gate. Nope didn't do that very well. Hell why didn't they just drop
a freakin' pile of rocks in front of the gates or have a drawbridge at
the least. How about the water supply? Never leave it open for it to be
poisoned by the opposing forces, right?. Just left that wide open didn't
they. No moat with spikes? Guess not.
And in terms of strategy… Why the hell do you wait for the bad guys to
get close to you before shooting your arrows at them? Hello!? Just shoot
the shit out of them before they even get close. Unless you have pitch
that you want to pour on them, but they didn't. And it looks like one of
their leaders is standing on a freakin' rock exposed to the defenders.
WELL, shoot him for God's sake. The individual battles were just as
ridiculous. Each character was totally exposed to being hacked to death
by the bad creatures. But like Stormtroopers, they couldn't hit the
broad side of a barn, at least when it came to the main characters. And
though it looked cool, there was just no sense of a battle barely won
through the brilliant leadership of its men, - no sense of evil still
existent - almost no emotion at all. Well, except for Gandalf's return
with help and the brilliant symbolism that that part of the battle
represented. (If only the rest of the movie were like this scene!)
No this battle had none of the heart and soul of the battle in
Braveheart. Not even that of the Gladiator opening sequence. In fact,
almost the whole movie seemed to lack any of the magic and mysticism
that made Fellowship so much better.
Having said all of this should you go to the movie? Of course! It is
still visually stunning if lacking in magic. The acting is still solid,
where they have a chance to act, and if you ignore any semblance of
wartime strategy then the fight scene is stunning to look at. Just check
your strategy at the door.
 
- 7/10
Takato Yamashita
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