I don’t think I could say that I liked The Two Towers more, or less, than The Fellowship of the Ring. I think rather that the two films are very different in feel and content. Naturally comparisons will be and have been made between the two, but I am going to try and avoid that if I can.

The Two Towers was always going to be the hardest of the three films. No concrete beginning or end, the worry of attracting both those who had seen The Fellowship of the Ring and those who hadn’t, combined with the need to make people want to see The Return of the King. It is not a task many would have taken on, and Peter Jackson deserves a huge round of applause for attempting it and succeeding.

The major difficulty is of course the fragmented narrative structure found in the book. The three different story strands are all equally important and there is no easy way of combining them. So The Two Towers, at times, does feel a little too jumpy, as the story cuts from Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, to Merry and Pippin, and to Frodo and Sam, lost in the wilderness with Gollum. On the whole, however, the changes are smooth, and often seamless.

Starring in The Two Towers as it did in The Fellowship of the Ring is New Zealand. Jackson and his cinematographer Andrew Lesnie use the country almost as a character in its own right, setting off their magnificent sets against breathtaking backdrops of mountain and plain. The city of the Rohirrim, Edoras, must surely be the single most impressive set I have ever seen on film, perched on a hill amid a circle of mountains.

Yet the acting stars do not let the scenery take all the credit. In The Two Towers we are introduced to several new characters as well as being reunited with the surviving members of the Fellowship. Amongst the new characters, Bernard Hill as the aged king Théoden of Rohan stands out. Théoden is a king worn down by care and unnatural old age, but is reborn as a dignified and noble leader trying to do the best for his people. He is supported by his niece Éowyn (Miranda Otto). Otto brings Éowyn both the steel and the humanity of a woman brought up alone amongst men, and it is impossible not to feel for her as she falls in hopeless love with Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen).

The most exciting new character has, however, to be Gollum. Fans of the book will know already that Gollum is a vital part of the story, and in The Two Towers he makes his first real appearance following brief glimpses in The Fellowship of the Ring. The character is entirely computer-animated, using movements and a sibilant voice provided by Andy Serkis. But he interacts so perfectly with Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin), as well as the landscape around him, that you can barely tell Gollum is not real. Serkis captures the creature’s torment and suffering – this is no pure villain. Particularly effective are the scenes where Gollum argues with himself, the camera cutting between the wide-eyed, hissing “Gollum”, and the hunched, pleading “Sméagol”.

The rest of the cast expand upon their roles in The Fellowship of the Ring, developing aspects and continuing their journeys. Mortensen’s Aragorn, dreaming of a life with his love Arwen, is forced to take control and help Théoden defeat the forces of the wizard Saruman (Christopher Lee). We see much more of both Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom), whose interaction provides some nice comic moments. Bloom is particularly good, somehow getting across the otherworldliness of an Elf in the world of Men.

Elsewhere, Merry and Pippin (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd) are captured by Orcs, and must show some real cunning to escape. These are no longer the happy, carefree hobbits of the Fellowship. Frodo and Sam, trying to get to Mordor, feel the burden of the Ring growing. Wood, his blue eyes as wide as ever, looks worn out, and it is Astin’s spirited Sam Gamgee who is taking over the lead role in this relationship. Frodo would certainly not get far without Sam.

The actors are again well-served by dialogue mixing Tolkien’s own words with a good adaptation of a complex book, and once more Ngila Dickson has worked miracles with wardrobe. Weta Workshop will doubtless be displaying another golden statue come February, most notably for the Orc armies who attack Rohan at Helm’s Deep. But above all the wheeling, exciting direction of Peter Jackson drives The Two Towers, the camera leading the eye up towers and down abysses, through forests and over plains. This is an extremely good film, the more so given its place as second in a trilogy, and the knowledge that another year separates us from The Return of the King is frustrating!

© Joanne Harris 2002