(Extended Edition)

“I wonder if we'll ever be put into songs or tales.”

After the events of the first film, the Fellowship is now divided and on separate journeys. Frodo and Sam still continue on their quest to destroy the One Ring, but this time with a new friend along the way. Meanwhile, the rest of the Fellowship is on their way to save Merry and Pippin from the clutches of the orcs, but instead finds themselves on a new adventure, with some new allies. They encounter the kingdom of Rohan, a kingdom in decline due to the ever-growing corruption of Middle-earth by the Dark Lord Sauron. Together, they prepare to fight back against Saruman’s armies of Isengard, while Sauron prepares to launch an even bigger attack.

One thing that automatically and immediately separates The Two Towers from The Fellowship of the Ring is the tone. It has a much darker and serious tone, which I absolutely love, as it gets ready to set up the doom and dread that is about to come to Middle-earth, and sets up the stakes that were already high, but are now even higher than they were before. This film, in general, also simply feels a lot more epic than the previous one, with much larger battles and a bigger scale to the absolute devastation that Sauron is already causing to this world.

The story also adds a lot to the epic nature and feel here, too. It has several stories within stories, which could very much get complicated, but thankfully, it doesn’t because each of the different things going on gets enough time to get the viewer invested and understand what’s going on, which is especially the case if you are watching the extended version. The several stories within one serve to set up the trilogy’s finale, The Return of the King, which could give it the feeling that this movie simply feels incomplete, but it really doesn’t. You can very much rewatch The Two Towers on its own and still get a very complete and satisfying experience without watching the other two.

When I first watched this entire trilogy for the very first time, I actually thought that this was the weakest of the three pretty easily, but after having rewatched it, I now know that it really just came down to the expectations I had going in. On my first viewing, I was very much expecting Frodo and Sam’s journey to be the biggest part of the overall story, and was left pretty disappointed that it didn’t get as much screentime as I had hoped. On rewatch, though, I very much now see that the main plot of this movie, in particular, mainly revolves around Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli’s journey. I would honestly say that Aragorn is the main character of this movie, and I really loved that this time around. I was hooked with the whole story with this side of the Fellowship and their uniting with Rohan, and the building dread and anticipation of the battle against Saruman’s army.

Aragorn, as a character specifically, is even more interesting here than he was before. He is given more of a backstory with the elves that really deepens his character and makes him a lot more interesting and compelling, because of the decision that he eventually made prior to the events of these movies. It’s a deep and kind of tragic backstory with a lot of emotional weight behind it. Even aside from that, though, he is given a lot more to do. The prophecy that was somewhat hinted at in Fellowship is made even more interesting and sets up what is to come incredibly well. He was already a great character before, but is now even better.

Frodo and Sam’s companionship gets a lot more attention and development than previously, too. There was a lot of heart to their friendship before, but with them also being in a larger group for most of that movie, inevitably, a lot of focus was put on other things. Here, you see just how much the two care for each other and how much Sam is willing to do to help Frodo complete his quest to destroy the ring and save Middle-earth, which he could undoubtedly not do alone. It’s been said many times before by others, but it is definitely true that we all need a friend like Sam. This was another thing that I found even more interesting, even though it’s not in the movie as much as I thought it would be the first time I watched it. To be honest, though, I think their somewhat shortened screentime actually adds a lot of nice subtlety to their relationship that would become a lot more prominent in The Return of the King.

I absolutely, without question, cannot write this review without mentioning Gollum. Andy Serkis, I think, is one of the most underrated and underappreciated actors of all time, and Gollum is arguably his best performance, in competition with Caesar from the Planet of the Apes trilogy. His character is quite funny and interesting, but also extremely unique and mysterious, as you never know if he’s up to something that the other characters don’t quite see or not. The CGI for him, in general, still holds up to this day completely. The way he interacts with environments and other characters is not only impressive for the time that this film, or rather, trilogy, came out, but also very impressive today. Without a doubt, one of the best CGI characters of all time.

The action and battle sequences were brought up to an entirely different level in The Two Towers. There was somehow even more that needed to be pulled off than before, particularly when it comes to the visual effects, and everyone who worked on this movie absolutely delivered. This is chock-full of some of the most impressive and incredible action sequences ever put to film, with the biggest standout, of course, being the Battle of Helm’s Deep. The Battle of Helm’s Deep has its place in cinema history as one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time, and for very good reason. It’s an absolutely incredible section of the movie that is very long, but never becomes repetitive or boring in the slightest.

Adding to that, the cinematography is another improvement. The cinematography in Fellowship is still incredible, but with The Two Towers, there was simply more to show off. I’ll just mention the Battle of Helm’s Deep real quick, since I just talked about it. Not only is it one of the most epic battles ever put to film, but it is also amazing to look at. Peter Jackson and the rest of the team tested themselves even more here, as this battle is not only huge in scale, with all of the CGI needed to pull it off, but it also has rain, which makes things even more complicated. It truly is unbelievable how they made this part of the film. Outside of Helm’s Deep, there are plenty of new environments introduced, just like before, that are all incredible to look at.

The last thing I’ll mention is the score, which was just ramped up to an entirely different level. I don’t want to get repetitive, so I’ll just talk about this briefly, as the entire trilogy has fantastic music, but I think The Two Towers might just have the best. My favorite of the entire franchise is here, “The Uruk-hai,” which I honestly don’t know if that is a common pick or not, but I could listen to it all day. There is also a heavy usage of vocal performance that is also some of the most beautifully composed music of all time, without exaggeration.

Unlike Fellowship, which I find to have some mild pacing issues, there really isn’t anything to nitpick about this film. It’s pretty much as close to perfect as you can possibly get. I just think that Return of the King is somehow even better. The Two Towers could easily be a five-star movie the next time I watch it.