4.5 of 5

[Mocca]

Today I saw made my way into an advance screening of Two Towers. Press, cinema-owners, merchandise people … and fans like myself. I’ll warn you before going into spoiler territory, and even then it won’t be too bad.

Right now my feelings are somewhat mixed about the experience and not nearly as overwhelmed as after seeing Fellowship for the first time. And it’s not through any fault of the movie. But last December everything seemed uncertain and perilous. Sure, there were convincing images to be found, and I had confidence in Peter Jackson. But no one (you knew) had actually seen the movie - you couldn’t be sure about the final result, and a lot was hinging on that first film. And even if it turned out to be fantastic, there was still no way of knowing how it actually felt. And then of course that anxiety was resolved so spectacularly. Since then it’s been another year of speculation and waiting - minor insecurities compared to the overwhelming confidence in and expectations of another great movie. I have seen Fellowship about 10 times in the past year. So every time I saw a new picture from TTT, I could make sense of it in relation to what I already knew - even if I tried to avoid the worst spoilers, I still knew - in broad terms - what to expect. So that this time around, I wasn’t nearly as taken aback by what I saw. It made me appreciate the Star Wars phenomenon in a new way: Last year we all felt that magic - how perfectly the film seemed to touch everybody. At that time I compared it (elsewhere) to falling in love, yearning and final fulfillment. This year comes the sad realization that the first kiss will never happen again - that rush eluded me.

Since this afternoon I have been thinking about what to write about the film. I won’t reveal too much, particularly since it holds a few twists from the book (I think Jackson himself said that this chapter departs the most from the books). But I’m forgetting the most important thing, so without further ado:

Yes, it is extremely cool

There are plenty of situations as Two Towers unfolds, where Jackson simply turns on the you-won’t-believe-this!-factor and turns it up to 11. New Zealand once again offers amazing scenery. The trio of writers manages to translate a difficult book to screen. And no matter what else might be said about the film, there are two things that will own your @$$: Gollum and Helm’s Deep.

The film opens with a coda to Fellowship - not really a prologue, but an action scene that ties the two movies together and makes sure you won’t go anywhere for the next three hours (as if). Time flies - Towers is a few minutes longer than its predecessor, but it feels shorter, and when the ending arrives, it is all to soon and a lot more unresolved than in part one - it’s too late to get off the train at this point, and who would want to?

One of the things that struck me was how different Towers feels to Fellowship - mainly because this film intercuts between three different plotlines, allowing for a faster pacing and higher intensity. In Fellowship we have to stay in each scene until its point has been passed on, and then some time has to pass until the next important scene - in TTT Jackson has the choice of skipping from one key sequence to the next, while offering new opportunities for building suspense. Which also means that we do lose some of the (already few) tranquil moments of the previous instalment. Another difference is how the movie centres on one region, namely Rohan.

Okay, I’m going to get a little more into each of the three stories of the movie. I’ll be careful but I can’t have an opinion without discussing things slightly, so consider this a spoiler-light review.
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Following the intro the film jumps to Frodo & Sam on their way to Mordor. These were the scenes, where I found myself to be most at home. The heat is soon turned up on Frodo’s struggle with the Ring, and this complicates his friendship with Sam - it is obvious from the beginning that things are going to get a lot darker. Almost immediately the greatest feat of the film is introduced: Gollum. Now you’ve all heard the hype - I know I had, and I was still shocked by what I saw. The voice and acting of Gollum is such that he could have been made out of Lego, and he would still be pathetic, creepy, animate and totally believable. But it just so happens that he is one of the most lifelike CG-creations ever made. It is incredible. Andy Serkis’ voice, the natural movements and the expressive grimacing fascinated me to the extend that I could hardly keep my eyes from him (convenient, perhaps, since the weak point seemed to be how he blended into the background - but that’s also the problem of bluescreen and not something confined to Gollum). I’m with Gollum from now on. Generally speaking, there is more excitement than in the book, and I’m fine with that. For instance, Jackson being who he is, can’t help playing with the ghosts in the swamps. Other highlights of this journey includes the gate into Mordor. You might remember having heard about it being opened by two cave trolls? Forgeddaboutit! This has to be seen. And we get a winged nazgûl, but I’ll leave that for now. The oliphants … just a brief glimpse, and this is one scene that I didn’t feel was used to full effects - but the mûmaks looked perfect. Another important part of this story is meeting Faramir (David Wenham). As you probably know by now he is the character that has been changed most drastically from the book - things take an unexpected turn here. I wasn’t overly thrilled, but it does offer an opportunity to expand further upon the character in part three. Wenham is fine, and he does look reasonably like Sean Bean, but he is not as handsome a man as I would imagine him from the book (sorry, Faramir-fans). As Jackson has already warned there is no Shelob in this film.

Meanwhile, Merry & Pippin are out on their own little adventure. One that isn’t given much space. They are no longer the funny sidekicks, which was nice. I was disappointed to see that we didn’t get the fight between uruk-hai and the orcs of Mordor, but Jackson has made these cuts elsewhere, and it shouldn’t have come as a surprise. The “Grishnákh” still looks different from the uruk-hai, but it’s not said outright that he serves the Eye. Then Treebeard enters. I have seen several lukewarm opinions on him, and I have to agree with that. The design is excellent, I think (and this includes the other ents), but he seems somehow less alive than the other creatures. And I could hear Gimli speaking through him. And again, it’s just too few scenes - it’s mainly Treebeard striding along with the hobbits on his “back”. But we do get the raid on Isengard, and this will kick your butt. Joy.

Most of the time is spend with Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli in Rohan. This chapter has a clumsy beginning - it seems hurried, and the many new characters and events - Grima, Eowyn, Eomer, Theoden, Theodred’s death, Saruman’s army, and the three hunters rejoining with Gandalf - are only introduced perfunctorily. There is a whole new setting and crisis here, and it could have been staged better. This is my main criticism against TTT. Oh well, you get into the story soon enough (but this part will hopefully benefit from the Extended Version ). The newcomers all do a good job: You don’t get to see much of Eomer (Karl Urban), but he seems suitably tough. Grima (Brad Dourif) is just perfect. And hey, Eowyn (Miranda Otto) has freckles. King Theoden (Bernard Hill) is perfectly cast, but he does change his attitude in an unexpected manner a couple of times -- though I think it will make more sense, when I see it again with a little more distance to the book. Again, this chapter departs from the book, but in relative minor ways (unless you want to get pedantic), so never mind. We get to see wargs - savage and cool, but the fight is less intense than the one with the cave troll, and then there’s the whole hyena/bear vs wolf design-thing. I was unimpressed without being disappointed, if that makes sense. The other big effects-challenge is of course the battle of Helm’s Deep. It has been described elsewhere as the most extreme battle ever, but it doesn’t have the brutality of a film like Gladiator. It’s still completely insane and inventive, though. Even knowing/guessing quite a bit about the battle, the climax still impressed the hell out of me. Better than anything I’d imagined. Aragorn starts to grow into his role as a leader, and we are briefly reminded of his love to Arwen. Legolas is pretty much his own ancient self. We get to see a lot less of Gandalf, which is a shame, but I expect to get a lot more of him in part three. Gimli reverts to the growling inferiority complex-sidekick from before the gift-giving, and a lot of people are gonna hate that - but I must say that his jokes seemed popular. And he does have a battle-scene that’ll make Liz Borden look like an amateur.

The ending is extremely open, and it’s going to be a long year before The King Returns.

In closing … The Two Towers is not everything I hoped for, but it is still brilliant, and it managed to wow me in a couple of places where I didn’t expect it. And it does seem to tie into the final installment a lot closer than part one and two did, which makes it harder to judge on its own.

/mocca

PS: There are some scenes that we know from the trailer and stills that weren’t in the movie. So I have to start guessing about the Extended Version: I would like to see the introduction to Rohan and its people and problems done better. I want more from Merry & Pippin’s journey - both with the orcs and the ents. And I want Faramir to be a little better developed. An I’m sure Jackson has a few shots from Helm’s Deep up his sleeve. Basically, I want more, period.