Starring:
 Viggo Mortenson
 Elijah Wood
 Sean Astin
 Ian McKellen

Directed by:
 Peter Jackson

Overall Crave Factor

My unconditional love for the first part of this series is a well-known fact, and Peter Jackson has crafted a worthy partner for his epic masterpiece. THE TWO TOWERS is equal to THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING in every way, and even exceeds it in some.

The continued mastery with which Jackson wields his mighty directorial sword, and orchestrates the incredible vastness of Tolkein’s stories into a cohesive and endlessly exciting whole, is more deserving of praise and award, than the last ten Best Director Oscars combined. Creating these films has proved as great an undertaking as it was for Tolkein to write them. Amazing detail is held in every frame of film, flawless and without a single misstep.

The cast is just as perfectly suited as in the first chapter, and the momentum of the story has shifted the focus from being mainly on Frodo, to allow for a much closer look at the others. Merry, Pippin, Legolas and Gimli are all much more developed here, and Aragorn becomes the main focus of the entire film. Viggo Mortenson gives the kind of powerful and charismatic performance that used to turn bit players into superstars. Elijah Wood and Sean Astin supply enormous heart to a complicated and plot heavy story, counterbalancing the pure adrenaline of the Aragorn segments, and the light humor of the Merry/Pippin material and gelling the entire film into a magnificent thing of filmic beauty.

The special effects are unbelievable, and the recent release of the FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING Extended DVD set gives a new insight into the tremendous strides Jackson and WETA have made in the field. After seeing the featurettes on the 4-Disc set, I was much more appreciative of the magnitude of the effects. I sat through the Helm’s Deep battle in the final third of the film and was completely awed by the sound and vision employed in creating what will stand as the most incredible battle scene in the history of film. It literally turns your brain to mush and overloads every single sense in your body, as if you had just been right in the middle of the battle and had miraculously survived.

By two hours after the film, my mind had reformed itself and begun to try and understand what it had just seen, and the realization of how that sequence was brought to life with mere computer software and creative innovation is astounding. It really is one of those rare moments when you can not distinguish the film from reality. You forget you are in a theatre seat, you forget your name, some may forget that their bladders need to be controlled. It is that good.

I am trying very hard to stay away from spoilers here, so I won’t give away any plot points, but let me just say that this is less a film than a religious experience, and Peter Jackson has firmly cemented himself as one of, if not THE greatest director of our time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go change my pants and have my eyeballs surgically reimplanted into my skull…