The Lord of the Rings – the Two Towers

Running time: 179 minutes
Genre: Epic adventure
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Vigo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Miranda Otto, Brad Dourif, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham …

The Two Towers is the second film of the trilogy The Lord of the Rings directed by Peter Jackson. Maybe if you haven’t seen the first film – The Fellowship of the Ring – you will not understand why the hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and his companion Sam (Sean Astin) are so obsessed in destroying the ring that Frodo - the Ring bearer - brings with him.
The whole story is about this ring – the One Ring - because it contains an enormous power and is wanted by everyone, especially Sauron and the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee) who try everything to take it with their servants’ help. These two evil forces want to destroy and change the whole face of Middle Earth forever and that all kind of horrible creatures like orcs, trolls and many others start ruling all the kingdoms of Middle Earth.

Aragorn (Vigo Mortensen) has been the leader of the Fellowship since the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) had disappeared at Khazad-dûm and also plays an important role in this epic adventure as the king, who will return in the third part of the trilogy. In this film as well as in the whole trilogy there’s a love story between Aragorn and the elf Arwen (Liv Tyler) which is disturbed by the appearance of lady Eowyn (Miranda Otto), the niece to the King Theoden (Bernard Hill) of Rohan. The title The Two Towers means that the Fellowship has to face at the same time the increasing power of Orthanc Tower in Isengard where Saruman is the commander and Sauron’s Tower at Barad-dûr in the dark lands of Mordor. The War of the Ring starts in this film but we will only know how it ends if we see the third and last film of the trilogy – The Return of the King. The Two Towers introduces new characters such as Gollum (Andy Serkis), Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), Faramir (David Wenham), the people of Rohan and the Ents.
Besides the story, what I liked most in this film were the special effects which are amazing. That’s why it won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. The character Gollum is particularly impressive because it is very realistic. My favourite character is the elf archer Legolas (Orlando Bloom) due to his beauty, wisdom, skills and kindness. He plays some funny scenes with the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies). However, I think the funniest characters are the young hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd).
I loved everything about this film so I can’t point out what I didn’t like. It is one of my favourite films besides the other two of the trilogy because it portrays a totally different reality with all its fantastic characters such as hobbits, dwarfs, elfs and ents.
This film, which is an adaptation of the book written by J. R. R. Tolkien, was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards, including the one for Best Film, and won four. People who have seen the first film can’t miss this one. Better than this one only the third film of the trilogy – The Return of the King.