The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Starring Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen…

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Starring Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen and Sean Astin

Directed by Peter Jackson

There’s no recap at the beginning of “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.” It picks up right where its predecessor, “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” left off. Director Peter Jackson is doing something bigger than sequels – he’s basically filming J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy as one giant movie and showing it to us a third at a time. (Next Christmas’ “Return of the King” will be the bittersweet finale.) It is one of the most ambitious filmmaking attempts of all time, as the books, for their colossal scope and detail, have long been thought impossible to film. And here’s Jackson, the jolly New Zealander, maker of splatter flicks and small character dramas, pulling it off.

After an eye-popping opening sequence in which we get to see Gandalf’s mid-freefall battle with the fire demon during his plunge into the depths of the earth, the film begins to switch between the three fragments of the broken fellowship. Frodo and Sam (Elijah Wood and Sean Astin) push on toward Mordor, the only place where the ring can be destroyed, under the guidance of the creature Gollum, the ring’s tormented previous owner. Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli (Viggo Mortensen, Orlando Bloom and John Rhys-Davies) take up the cause of protecting the people of Rohan from evil armies created to bring down mankind. Merry and Pippin escape the orcs and flee into the forest, where they attempt to rouse Ents (tree people) to join in the fight against evil.

The use of computer-generated imagery in the film is some of the best to date. Computer wizardry doesn’t just lend spectacle, it creates a memorable character. Gollum, who is 100-percent computer generated, is more than a special effect; he lives, has depth and can hold the screen on his own.

Tolkien’s books are brimming with classic, uncluttered themes (good vs. evil, friendship, the destruction of nature by industry, are a few), which Jackson carries to the film. They combine with high adventure to make for the kind of pure, grand cinema that can be best compared to the old studio epics – films such as “Lawrence of Arabia” come to mind.

Jackson is securing his status as one of the greats with these films. He’s showing remarkable ability as both a screenwriter, by successfully adapting what are some of the most richly textured books ever written, and a director, by leading one of the most massive shoots in history and not losing his mind – that’s more than Coppola can say. And how is he going to follow up these films now that Hollywood is willing to hand him a blank check – he says he’s staying in New Zealand and making a low-budget zombie movie (a la his riotous “Dead Alive”). How cool is that?