A perfect sequel to a perfect franchise!

After the giant success that was Fellowship Of The Ring and the ending of it that built up to the sequel, expectations were probably the highest I have ever felt about a film. I can remember watching all three films in the cinema and they all did blow me away but The Two Towers is perhaps the most different of the trilogy because we go on a journey where the One Ring isn't the main key focus of the story so we go to the other side of Middle-Earth although we do see the One Ring and Frodo and Sam on their quest a lot now seeing as the Fellowship has fallen apart and the stories have separated. The end of The Two Towers that lead to the build-up to Return Of The King was even more of a tease than the ending of Fellowship Of The Ring was.


Over the years there have been many sequels that have been disappointing failures especially when their predecessors have been great successful and I am glad to say that The Two Towers managed not to do that. Despite that it is a different story to what we saw in the first film, it felt so real like I was literally there with all of the characters and was epic all the way through and that is simply what I love the most about the entire trilogy. I loved every single action scene in this; especially the Helm's Deep battle and the fight in the field with the Isengard wolves.


The Fellowship has been broken, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee have gone to Mordor to destroy the One Ring, Merry and Pippin have been captured by the Uruk-Hai and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli have made friends of the Rohan, a race of Men who are upon war, led by their aging king Théoden. The two towers between Mordor and Isengard, Barad-Dúr and Orthanc, have united in their lust for destruction. The corrupt wizard Saruman and his slimy assistant Gríma Wormtongue, under the power of the Dark Lord Sauron, have created a grand Uruk-Hai army bent on the destruction of Men and Middle-Earth. The rebellion against Sauron is building up and will be led by Gandalf the White, who was thought to be dead after he fell down that dark abyss in Moria thanks to the Balrog. One of the Ring's original bearers, Gollum, has tracked Frodo and Sam down in search of his 'precious', but we see a nicer side to Gollum when he becomes Sméagol (his old original self before he became Gollum) and is used as a guide to Frodo and Sam by getting to Mount Doom to free the people of Middle-Earth from Sauron once and for all.


I thought the ensemble cast in Fellowship Of The Ring was just fantastic and in The Two Towers we see even more actors who have joined in to make their careers even more worthwhile in this landmark trilogy such as Andy Serkis (who was voicing Gollum for one or two scenes but there was hardly any body motion capture like there was in the sequels and will be in The Hobbit films), Bernard Hill, Karl Urban, David Wenham and amongst others. As for the actors who were in the predecessor, pretty much all of them deliver fantastic performances although there was one or two that weren't all that great and could have been better in my opinion. For example, I wasn’t entirely impressed with Liv Tyler as Arwen or Miranda Otto as Éowyn so basically just the women in the films. Everybody else gave a great or at least satisfying performance. Elijah Wood was good as Frodo once again but not one of the best. I’ll tell you what his performance is like in comparison to another's, and that is it is rather similar performance to Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars original trilogy. Ian McKellen wasn't involved in The Two Towers as much as Fellowship Of The Ring or Return Of The King but that doesn't mean he gave a weaker performance! He is just perfect for the Gandalf character and he proves that in the sequel. Viggo Mortensen was pretty good too as Aragorn and so was Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee (in my opinion, the most underrated performer in the trilogy). Orlando Bloom doesn't annoy me in Lord Of The Rings like he did in Pirates Of The Caribbean so that’s good and I really liked the funny chemistry between him and Dwarf Gimli. Andy Serkis was amazing as Gollum! He and McKellen are the best performers in the trilogy! Fact.



Peter Jackson, a director who most people had no knowledge of until Fellowship Of The Ring was released and he blew us all away with a film that really felt real. However, did he do it again with The Two Towers? Ohh… hell yeah! Unfortunately, Jackson didn't receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director but he damn sure deserved to win the bloody award, let alone be nominated! Peter really is the only guy who could have made Lord Of The Rings as successful as it is now and he really is the only guy who can pull off The Hobbit too seeing as they came before Lord Of The Rings in the books but the films are prequels to the trilogy. Anyway, the way he handled making this film was literally flawless and it was spine chilling throughout every second of it. You might find this weird and be gob smacked at this but even the extended versions of the trilogy aren't even long enough despite that they are all at least 3 ½ to 4 hours long so yeah, that goes to show how much I love Lord Of The Rings and will love The Hobbit which are most likely to be at least 3 hours long (both films).


Overall, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers is another fantastic film in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy and when it ended, it became the biggest build-up and most exciting film experience ever when it led to Return Of The King which is my favourite film of all time. No, this wasn’t completely about the Ring but it is still a masterpiece and a very serious, dark, gripping adventure where we visit another region of Middle-Earth. It also has its rightful place as one of the greatest sequels of all time.

10/10