The Popkorn Junkie :: Lord of the Rings

"Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" is the second installment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The film starts off exactly where it's predecessor left off....that being said, I have to point out that if you are one of the few who have not seen the first episode of this story, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring", or have not read the book, I highly advise you to do so before watching this film. First of all you will be lost as far as the plot and characters go and secondly, because of your ignorance, you will definitely not be able to enjoy the film to it's fullest potential. So don't do it! :)

So, the film begins with Frodo and Sam continuing their trek towards Mount Doom. The terrain is treacherous and confusing, it does not take Frodo and Sam too long to decide that they making no progress. Luckily, or maybe not, the creature Gollum who has been following them in secret for quite a while attempts to attack them in their sleep. Frodo and Sam overtake him and Frodo, who is starting to feel pity for the wretch, strikes a deal with Gollum: they will not kill or mistreat him if he leads them safely to the Black Gate, the entrance to Mordor. Thus they resume their journey with Gollum as their guide. It is lucky because he is familiar with the terrain, it is unlucky because Gollum cannot be fully trusted-- he is after the Ring himself.

Meanwhile, Legolas, Gimili, and Aragorn are searching for Merry and Pippin, who had been captured by the Uruk-Hai. Eventually the trio catches up with a small army of human riders, from a nearby kingdom named Rohan, whom relay to them that they had recently slaughtered the pack of Uruk-Hai and left no survivors-- they have little hope that Merry and Pippin survived. Upon inspection of the battleground, Aragorn finds the tracks of the Hobbits-- did they survive? See the movie to find out.

I really do not want to give any more of the story away, if you want to find out what happens you must see the film. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I'm not really sure if I like it better than the original, I don't think you can compare two movies when once is a continuation of the other....but I will say that I've never seen a movie that had such a perfectly fitting continuation. I'm not talking about sequels...I mean movies that pick up exactly when the previous on left off. Maybe I've never even seen such a film. But the point is, this film is just as enjoyable as the first, and since the first film was my absolute favorite movie ever....that says a lot.

-- Patsy ( 4 out of 4 pops )

Talk about this film with other Popkorn Junkies

Other Junkie's opinions.....

Billy Ray ( 4 out of 4 pops )

Well, it's been one whole year since the first film in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy hit theatres, and it was a year with countless films that were lucky enough to receive my four pop seal of approval. It has just been a good year for movies. Alas, none of the films I gave those four pops too even came close to measuring up to this film in terms of scale and grandeur. "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" is a grand sequel and features the best special effects I have ever seen -- period. The fight scene at the end of the film between the Orcs and the armies of Rohan is simply amazing. I loved the fact that some of the minor characters in the first film, such as the elf archer and the dwarf, were given much more screen time and some snappy dialogue. When the archer and the dwarf are competing to see who can kill the most Orcs-that is just marvelous. The effects on the creature Golem are extraordinary and make Dobby from "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" look like a friggin' muppet. What surprised me was that Frodo is given less attention in this film than the original. Viggo Mortenson is the star of this film, plain and simple. Christopher Lee is dead-on sinister as the evil wizard, Sir Ian McKellen is still as bad ass as ever, and Brad Dourif (he does the voice of Chucky in the "Child's Play" flicks) even shows up. Seeing Hugo Weaving as the head of the elf order just made me want to see "Matrix Reloaded" even more. If the third and final in the trilogy is halfway as good as this one, this might well be the best trilogy ever. I absolutely adored this film.

James ( 4 out of 4 pops )

I don't want to say much, because quite simply, there's so much hype about this film that nobody really cares what _I_ think, so I will just cut to the chase and say that I thoroughly enjoyed this film, I think it's TONS better than Fellowship ever could be. I got bored watching Fellowship (yes, even in the theater), and that never happened with the Towers. The humor is better, the action is better, the photography and editing is just as great, and the movie gets 4 Pops from me. If you remember, or check out the review on this site for the original, I only gave it 2.5 pops, because I wasn't the only person who got bored...but far less people are getting bored this year.

Mike ( 4 out of 4 pops )

About the only way I can describe this film is that it is an amazing, breathtaking adventure flick. Even at three hours long, the movie moves with hardly a slow moment in it. If only George Lucas would learn how to combine excitement and adventure with special effects like is done in this movie, the last two Star Wars films might have been worth seeing. The Two Towers show how a film can be made with special effects that enhance the story and not just be the whole film in themselves. All the characters are again most engaging and I couldn't get enough of that schizophrenic new creature who may or may not be helping Frodo. I just wish I could have understood everything this creature was saying. The worst thing I can say about this film is that now I gotta wait another year for the final chapter of the trilogy.