The Two Towers uses its countless action sequences to wear down viewers until they’re just as tired as the film’s heroes. As a result, The Two Towers is not only one of the most constantly entertaining blockbusters you’ll ever see but also one of the most exhausting. The script, which was penned by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Stephen Sinclair, and Peter Jackson, also fills it with minor conflicts and action sequences that never bring The Two Towers to a halt as much as they continually propel it forward. That structure gives The Two Towers the kind of constant, straightforward momentum that has similarly elevated action films like Mad Max: Fury Road. And so are the characters who inevitably end up at the center of those conflicts. From the moment it begins, the film is slowly marching toward its climactic battles at Helm’s Deep, Osgiliath, and Isengard. Whereas both Fellowship of the Ring and Return of the King are comprised largely of detours and twists that constantly send their heroes careening in different directions, the characters in The Two Towers all move along a fairly straight path across the entirety of the film. The Two Towers has the most straightforward plotting of any of Jackson’s three Lord of the Rings films. The film gets to exist solely on its own terms, and the result is a fantasy blockbuster that provides all the escapist fun that a fan of the genre could want, as well as some of the most viscerally effective action storytelling that’s ever been captured on-screen. Unlike The Fellowship of the Ring and The Return of the King, which are defined by their statuses as the opening and closing chapters of their trilogy, The Two Towers doesn’t have to worry about setting up or resolving any of its multiple stories. The second installment in director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy is not only just as good as 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring and 2003’s The Return of the King, but its climactic battle has also cast a shadow that not even Game of Thrones or the Harry Potter movies have ever truly been able to escape. However, while all of these TV shows have created more than their fair share of memorable moments and awe-inspiring visuals, none of them have ever quite matched the sheer scope or technical craftsmanship of 2002’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Those pursuits have not only resulted in HBO producing its own Game of Thrones follow-up, House of the Dragon but in Netflix investing heavily in shows like The Witcher while Amazon spared no expense on The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power. Following the massive success of Game of Thrones, there has been a renewed interest among Hollywood producers in creating expensive adaptations of beloved fantasy properties.
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