It’s expectations that director Peter Jackson has clearly found himself having to address in this movie. Given that all three films in the series were shot simultaneously, Jackson doesn’t have much opportunity to introduce new stuff with each movie. We’re well familiarized with the main characters and the primary settings, so much of the weight falls on the new people and creatures introduced in this episode to carry the story.
Far and away, that weight falls on Gollum, the creature and former ringbearer which tracked Frodo through Fellowship, always staying the shadows. In The Two Towers, Gollum (aka Smeagol) takes center stage as he catches up with a rapidly weakening Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin), now separated from the rest of their party, and he becomes a guide for the hobbits in exchange for a promise that they won’t kill him. A completely CGI creation based on digitizing a real actor’s motion, the pasty, scampering Gollum is quite well-executed and is given tons of screen time. While he suffers from the stilted movement of many CGI characters when seen in action shots, Gollum is painstakingly detailed and lifelike when seen in closeup. He’s one of the highlights of the film, and his loincloth is uncannily able to keep things discreet!
Alas, the final story followed in The Two Towers concerns the lost hobbits Pippin and Merry, eventually forgotten by Aragorn after he reunites with Gandalf (Ian McKellen). Pippin and Merry encounter a creature that could only come from Tolkein’s strange mind, an anthropomorphic tree-like creature called an ent. The ent has been a closely-guarded secret by the filmmakers and now we know why: because it is possibly the stupidest-looking fantasy creature ever to appear in a movie. I’m serious. This is Neverending Story stuff. With big, googly eyes, the ents (yes, there are many, each more embarassing than the last) always appear against an obvious bluescreen as they shamble through the forest with the hobbits. The effect is so horrendous it’s hard to believe it’s in the same movie as the battle of Helm’s Deep and the digital Gollum. Oh well, every series must have its low points, it seems.
Aside from the awful, cornball ents, my only other complaint with the film is that it just doesn’t stand on its own. Most stories have a beginning, middle, and end, but Two Towers feels like a whole lot of middle -- which of course it is, being the second of three books. (Don’t agree? Think of the way The Empire Strikes Back stands on its own without the two films bookending it.) But Tolkein’s literature holds together in ways that Jackson’s movies have not been able to. It weakens the movie since we’re really left dangling at the end; but it’s not a cliffhanger, either. The movie just kind of, well, stops. If Jackson wanted to make one long movie, he should’ve made this as a TV miniseries, not three films each released a year apart.
While Fellowship was fairly faithful to the book, Two Towers gets very loose with the source material. Namely, Pippin and Merry remain lost with the ents throughout the film; in the book, they are reunited with Gandalf and co. and then have another showdown with Saruman (though this part of the story might be in the works for part three). More perplexing is that in the book, Frodo is befriended by Boromir’s brother and helped along on his way by him. In the movie, the brother captures the hobbits, threatens them with death, and tries to take the ring! The timeline in the movie is completely out of whack, though for the sake of drama, it works more often than not.
Despite the puttering out of The Two Towers, I’m looking forward to Return of the King. It shouldn’t be too hard to make it the best entry into the series (the finale should be one of the best endings in movie history), but for one more year Rings fans will have to content themselves with a middle that’s plenty good on the whole but far short of great. I ask only that somebody, please, burn all the ents.
Sorry for this overly long review - but please check out https://miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/columnists/dave_barry/5023564.htm
for a really really funny take on this pic. you won’t regret it!