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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002): 5/10

Ho hum. In Peter Jackson's second movie of the three books, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) is trying to deliever the ring of power to the fire in middle earth, since that is where it was created, that is where it can be destroyed. Along with him is his friend Samwise (Sean Astin), who refers to his friend as "Mr. Frodo". Something about that strikes me as just weird. The other members of the broken fellowship (how did they break up? I don't remember, I saw the first one a year ago and I'm not an avid fan) seem to be trying to tag along. Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), a human, Legolas (Orlando Bloom), an elf, and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), a dwarf, try to trace the trail of Frodo and Sam. Two more hobbits, Pippin (Billy Boyd) and Merry (Dominic Monaghan) get lost and are aided by talking and walking trees (!). Confused yet?

The one-minute-shy-of-three-hours runtime seems somewhat padded, maybe so it can keep up its reputation. Jackson tried to stay faithful to the book, but kept too close. For the record, I have not read any of the books. If everything about Pippin and Merry had been taken out, it would have been easier to tolerate.

To improve, they needed a more over-the-top climactic fight scene. In the first one it was the mines of Morea (sp?). This time it's Helm's Deep. With thousands of fighters, it's pure fun right? Wrong. It goes on for way too long, and after a while, it becomes, dare I say, boring? The first hour or so was fine, fun, and enjoyable. In the second hour, when characters came in and out and Jackson expected us to know everyone from the book, it drags a little. The third hour is just pure chaos, with not real rhyme to the reason.

It also seemed like everyone who died came back to life. I know this is a magical world, but come on! After falling off a cliff? Gimme a break. All of the acting was fine (Astin's may have been best), but I still don't know who a lot of the characters were.

Added to the mix is a computer animated character named Gollum, who sounds (and looks) a lot like Dobby from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He was once a hobbit, but came under the spell of the ring, and he's dying to get his hands on it. So he helps out Frodo and Sam to get to where they need to go. Oh yeah, he also has split personality for a bit of comic relief.

The cinematography seemed to either be long, wide, sweeping and beautiful shots or grotesque close-ups of Gollum or rotted faces of Orcs. Not exactly a pretty picture. The Two Towers doesn't have anything to do with the title (unless, of course, it was mentioned when I was in the bathroom). It's mainly a continuation of the first film, a transition between numbers one and three. And what was with Aragorn's dream type things? Maybe I should read the books.

The Two Towers is entertaining but deeply flawed by its meaningless plot and boring fights. Its visuals are stunning, but little else in the movie is.

Rated PG-13 for epic battle sequences and scary images.

Review Date: December 20, 2002