The Two Towers featured an amazing Dolby Digital soundtrack that will blow out the mind. The actual music is perfect from a calm scene from the shire to the fires of Mordor. The big bass fits in perfectly with the genre and the weapons from the film. The battle at Helm’s Deep is a masterpiece of audio and video. The sound of axes, swords and arrows zooming past your head will give you the ultimate battle experience. The music and audio is perfectly balanced at all time, and the track is perfect. The film has been generally improved through from the first installment This film has got to be seen in a cinema or on a entertainment system.
The two towers is based on the first installment. If you have not seen the first film keeping track of what’s going on and the names of the characters is going to be very difficult. The language used in the books is very odd and difficult to understand. Peter Jackson has tried to make it easier for the younger audience to understand and enjoy. The history of the two towers is all about power being distributed by the rings until one ring is forged to ‘rule them all’. The idea of elves dwarves and other creatures has been captured by the ancient beliefs of the previous generations. ‘middle earth’ is all on the idea of the population of life existing in one place. Tolkien, the writer of the trilogy has a very good imagination and puts conflicts between the race of men. The one ring causes people to lose their relatives and other precious possessions.
The camera shots performed in middle earth are breathtaking and very cleverly done. The camera zooms in the battle to show some fine action with ancient weaponry and classic battle style moves. The camera also provides the birds eye view of 10,000 orcs all marching towards the big battle. Going back to a more peaceful scene, the camera is also used to show the nice and peaceful scenes of Frodo and Sam walking through some nice New Zealand mountains. This world of Middle-Earth is a grand combination of the countryside, foggy swamps, huge castles and mountains. No shot of the land is missed and nothing is impossible for Jackson.
All of the action in the battles makes the film very biased. For this reason, Jackson has tried to put in some romantic scenes involving Aragorn and the elf, Arwen. Although the romance is no match for the battles, Jackson has still tried to keep the interest with the ladies.
Although the film is a masterpiece, there are some flaws in the story and the film. For example Tolkien has made the language quite hard to understand. Grasping the story on the first time of reading is very hard and the language has also made the film audience loose interest in Jackson’s work. Some characters are also introduced only by name in the film and are hard to follow up. The cross cutting of different stories makes the film shorter but also confuses the audience. The use of digital effects has been impressive but can computers take over the talent of the actors and a good storyline? Three stories being played with some romance to keep the audience interested and not leave. The film is visually stunning, but it feels like its missing the ‘magic formula’. The story has been criticized by many to be ‘old fashioned’ and ‘boring’. This view has the majority from the younger generations. Other of the story is that the public is dying to get autographs and shake Orlando Blooms’ hand.
Apart from these flaws, Mr. Jackson has really climbed higher in the history books and may achieve even more fame after the trilogy is finished. I think his hard work and really trying to make the film story interesting is pure genius. The biggest frustration for some will be waiting until dec.17 for the journey to finish.
By Waleed Mahmood
