“The three *The Lord of the Rings* films [all directed by Peter Jackson] have clearly made film history, chiefly due to their marked overall excellence. This film trilogy, shot entirely in New Zealand, is breathtaking at a minimum. Here, I'm reviewing the *Special Extended Edition* [as opposed to the much shorter Theatrical Version] of the second of these films on DVD, *The Two Towers*.I'm sure that the story is familiar to most who would show an interest in this film but, for the unindoctrinated, the overall adult fantasy trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien chronicles a group of travelers which includes a wizard, two men, a dwarf, an elf, and four hobbits, ergo: "The Fellowship". They are traveling because two evil wizards have joined forces to eventually conquer and enslave all inhabitants of Middle Earth. At the behest of these dark and nefarious sorcerers are orcs, trolls, wargs, and other heinous minions.One of the hobbits [Frodo Baggins] has inherited a magic ring from an aged relative [Bilbo Baggins, of *The Hobbit* fame, a fantasy written by Tolkien for young people] and it soon becomes clear that this is *The One Ring* which rules all other magic rings of power within Middle Earth. It was created by The Dark Lord [Sauron, the more powerful of the two evil wizards] but it was inadvertently lost for many years. As The Ring [which can render one invisible, with certain negative caveats] ultimately ends up in the hands of Frodo, it becomes his quest (along with the rest of The Fellowship) to destroy the ring at Mount Doom, a huge volcano which lies within Sauron's sinister and well-patrolled realm of Mordor.In *The Two Towers* the viewer is brought back into the tale just after a partial dissolution of The Fellowship has occurred. This nuance is a deviation from the first film [*The Fellowship of the Ring*] which is a very linear tale. Here, the story diverges into three or more directions: the journey of Sam and Frodo to destroy The Ring; Aragorn's development as a warrior and as a prospective King, and; Gandalf the Wizard's plan for dealing with the Evil sorcerers, Saruman and Sauron.One could rightly say that this film has no beginning and no end, being derived from the middle book of a trilogy; however, this movie stands on its own, especially in the Special Extended Edition version which is being reviewed here. One could watch this film with no knowledge of either Tolkien's trilogy of books or the other two films of the series and still enjoy it. If it doesn't actually have an ending, it does still feature a *conclusion* of a sort. I don't think viewers are left hanging.Director Peter Jackson, the cast, and the crew got ever more proficient as they produced these three films. Jackson sort of viewed his task as making one long film, thus the scenes were not shot in sequence, quite typical of film-making, but noting also that most films are not nine hours in length. Naturally, many changes were adopted within the scripts of all three films as time rolled along... and thus each movie clearly became better than its predecessor.I think that most of the *MAGIC* of this film trilogy came from Jackson's inclusion of multiple technologies and special effects techniques - he did not wholly depend upon Computer Generated Images but when he did they were effected in post-production with absolute perfection.Additional film magic was manifested through Howard Shore's magnificent classical filmscore for the trilogy. There is little doubt from my view that the soundtrack from this second film of the series was the greatest of the three. One of the outstanding segments includes singing by Isabel Bayrakdarian, a terrific Canadian soprano who is currently my favorite of all. The *Rohan* score is equally inspiring.Of course the Special Extended Editions contain much more original music than the theatrical versions and it's all a great joy to the ear, even including the gloom and doom facets of the three soundtracks. They are available as three individual sets: ”
“When the first film in the epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy thrilled fans and topped the box office for weeks, expectations rose even higher for the sequel, "The Two Towers." Would the follow-up be as beautifully crafted as the first?Fortunately moviegoers only had to wait a year for the answer, when "The Two Towers" debuted in December 2002. The second part of Peter Jackson's astounding adaptation lacks the surprise of the first movie, but it continues the strong storytelling, amazing acting, and one of the greatest battles of the silver screen.The fellowship has been split, and two members are dead. Now Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) are pursuing a band of orcs who kidnapped Merry and Pippin (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd). But soon Merry and Pippin are rescued by an ancient treelike creature, and the others encounter an old friend -- Gandalf (Ian McKellen), reborn as the White Wizard.Meanwhile, Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) are making their way towards Mordor, and soon Frodo realizes that they are being followed by Gollum (Andy Serkis), who once possessed the One Ring and still lusts after it. But Frodo begins to pity the degenerate creature, and agrees to let Gollum lead them to Mount Doom -- but Sam suspects that Gollum cannot be trusted."The Two Towers" is not really a sequel. Instead, it's just a continuation of the story that left off at the end of "Fellowship of the Ring," and the focus spreads past our little band of heroes to include all of Middle-Earth. It's not all about Frodo and the hobbits anymore, but about whole kingdoms being crushed by the bad guys.This film is much darker than the first movie, although we still get some funny moments from Gollum and the hobbits, but some creepy ones as well. Gollum/Smeagol's argument with himself is absolutely chilling. To top his previous work, Jackson creates three simultaneous climaxes, including the grimy, rain-soaked battle of Helm's Deep.But as he tells the epic stories, Jackson doesn't neglect the smaller stories, like the hobbits befriending treelike ents and battling a wizard. The scripting is impeccable, mixing the funny moments ("Don't talk to it! Don't encourage it!" Pippin wails when a "tree" speaks to them) with the dramatic speeches, and ending with a simple, powerful speech by Sam.And WETA Workshop's CGI effects don't disappoint. Not only do they manage whole armies and battles, but they brought the gruesome Gollum to life. He's probably the first convincing CGI character, to the point where you can actually forget that this Ring junkie is just a bunch of pixels.Elijah Wood continues his magnificent performance as Frodo Baggins, with the deep friendship, compassion and weariness that he started to show before. But his performance deepens to include some serious Ring-lust. Sean Astin's performance grows as well, as he does whatever it takes to protect Frodo -- from soldiers, Gollum, ringwraiths, whatever.But the supporting cast gets plenty of attention too, including a love triangle involving Aragorn and the warrior-maid Eowyn, and Legolas and Gimli becoming best buddies (even competing to see who kills the most orcs). McKellen gets to play "Gandalf 2.0," a less grumpy and wiser Gandalf, and movie veteran Christopher Lee gets more juicy scenes as the warped wizard Saruman. The scene where he sees the ents attacking is outstanding.The journey continues in "The Two Towers," crammed with so much action and pathos that it never has time to suffer from "middle chapter syndrome." An amazing continuation.”
“Jeder kennt sie, die James Bond Filme.Wer James Bond liebt, wird diese Ultimate Edition lieben!Viele Extras, viele Hintergrundinfos zum Film und zur Entstehenung.Ein klares muss für jeden Bondfan!”
“The extended addition made me fall in love with the trilogy all over again. How I wish Pete Jackson could have released this to the theaters. True ringers would have gladly stayed no matter how many hours it ran. Loved it so much, I broke out the books, starting with the Hobbit of course", and I am enjoying the thrill ride just as much as I did the first time I read them. The extra's and appendices explaining in detail all that was involved in the creation of this masterpiece was amazing to watch.”
“Kurz und knapp - ich bewerte die Blu-rayBild - enttäuschend - sicherlich in Ordnung - aber es gibt deutlich ältere Filme die besser aufpoliert wurden! oft unscharf!Sound - eine Frechheit an seinen deutschen Fans - selbst die DVD hatte eine DTS 6.1 Spur - die Blu-ray nur Dolby Digital 5.1!Sir Peter Jackson - man hätte Ihnen besser mit dem Schwert die Ohren abgeschlagen - statt zum RitterIch kann nur hoffen, dass bei der Veröffentlichung der Extended Versionen eine ordentliche Tonspur nachgelegt wird. Alles andere ist Hochverrat!!!Dies gilt für alle drei Teile!!!”
“I am a huge lifetime fan of this genre. Tolkien was a tremendously gifted author and the LOTR series of books has had a huge impact worldwide from the time it was first released. I was excited when I heard that the series was going to be made into a movie. However, as happens so often when trying to take a story of this magnitude and put it on the silver screen, I was afraid that the movie would fall short of the expectation. I'm happy to say the movie exceeded the expectation. And while some would say the original was too long, all I could say was give me more. The extended versions fulfill that request. And, while I was disappointed that the movie did not include the return to the Shire at the end, it is still one of the greatest movies of all time. As stated previously, if you are a fan of LOTR, the extended additions are a must-buy.”
