- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
89God forbid this should ever play on an IMAX screen -- the concussive soundtrack and relentless visuals would likely strike viewers deaf and blind (but what a way to go!). Simply breathtaking.
-
100The result is harrowing and inspiring. As escapist entertainment, it's the movie of the year.
-
100The miracle is that 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is better: tighter, smarter, funnier.
-
75Seeing Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is like having a second date with the woman who made you fall in love at first sight.
-
90One of cinema's most absorbing fantasies.
-
75A rousing adventure, a skillful marriage of special effects and computer animation, and it contains sequences of breathtaking beauty. It also gives us, in a character named the Gollum, one of the most engaging and convincing CGI creatures I've seen.
-
100Moviegoers should be almost as entranced by the teeming, glorious landscapes and dark, bloody battlegrounds of Two Towers: astonishing midpoint of an epic movie fantasy journey for the ages.
-
75Most moviegoers will leave buzzing about the climactic Battle of Helm's Deep. But in my eyes, this is Gollum's show more than anyone else's, even the special-effects wizards behind the scenes.
-
90The year's greatest adventure, and Jackson's limited but enthusiastic adaptation has made literature literal without killing its soul.
-
75What it comes down to is superbly staged battle scenes and moral alliances forged in earnest yet purged of the wit and dynamic, bristly ego that define true on-screen personality.
-
100There’s no question here that moviegoers will be treated to a completely enveloping, three-hour vacation from reality.
-
70Falters precisely because there's not enough stumbling, and far too much striding gallantly forward.
-
70If the second film never reaches the highs of the first -- we have met the players before and there are no new worlds of wonder -- it nonetheless invests moviegoing with a sense of adventure.
-
88For now, The Two Towers feels like the second installment in what next year, when Frodo finally reaches Mount Doom and the story draws to a close, we'll surely be hailing as a masterpiece.
-
100The Two Towers moves faster, covers more ground, has more action and -- with the introduction of the marvelous character Gollum -- packs some much-appreciated laughs.
-
100Jackson has a genuine epic gift: Few filmmakers have ever given gross-outs such resplendence.
-
75The sequel's battle scenes -- especially the climactic assault on the Helm's Deep fortress by the armies of darkness -- easily put those of the "Star Wars" series to shame.
-
100What's remarkable is how immediately, after a full year, The Two Towers seizes your attention, and how urgently it holds you through three seamless, action-packed hours.
-
75Jackson's superior sequel to last year's first installment in his Rings cycle - resurrects the beloved Gandalf (majestic Ian McKellen) and rejuvenates the audience, too.
-
91You will be heartened by the amazing sensation of watching one of the greatest works in the history of the medium unfold in front of you, piece by piece, year by year.
-
100Like its predecessor, The Two Towers is a great motion picture, and not to be missed by anyone who appreciates fantasy adventure.
-
75Spectacular in every sense of the word, even if you don' t know an Orc from a Uruk-Hai.
-
90Yes, there are some "middle-chapter" problems, but Peter Jackson's Tolkien adaptation hasn't lost its devastating humanity, its heart-stopping cinematography or its epic sweep.
-
75An outstanding effort that maintains the integrity and purpose that distinguished "The Fellowship of the Ring."
-
100A brilliantly conceived, boldly executed, cumulatively thrilling fantasy epic that expands the art of film and is sure to be the middle link of one of the movies' greatest trilogies.
-
70A glorious, visceral mess -- The film is, by most criteria, an ungainly piece of storytelling. Yet it sweeps you up and hurtles you along like water from an exploded dike.
-
100What makes Towers so staggering is the way it brings the full scope of Jackson's adaptation into focus. Without missing a beat in three hours, the film shifts from epic to lyrical and back.
-
75Both a triumph of design and cinematic engineering and, at the same time, long, repetitious and naive.
-
90Never has a film so strongly been a product of a director's respect for its source. Mr. Jackson uses all his talents in the service of that reverence, creating a rare perfect mating of filmmaker and material.
-
90The virtues of Jackson's trilogy, thus far, have been pace and astonishment, which is almost the same thing. [6 January 2003, p. 90]
-
100Towers, while not quite so varied as Fellowship in its moods and settings, has a grave gusto that energizes every moment...a thrilling work of film craft.
-
60This second installment is heavy on battle sequences, which will thrill some viewers more than others.
-
88Epic battles, spectacular effects and multiple story lines make The Two Towers a most excellent middle chapter in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
-
90Has a sharper narrative focus and a livelier sense of forward movement than did the more episodic "Fellowship."
-
70Jackson's movie is one portentous happening after another -- not unreasonable in that his source, J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy, is basically the fantasyland equivalent of a world war against absolute evil.
-
100Casts a spell and then some -- a ringing testament to the power of motion pictures.
-
100One fabulous Middle-earth show.
-
100Gripping, whole and nourishing. Certainly of the fantasy film series currently in American theaters -– I include "Harry Potter and the Secret Toity" and "Star Trek: Halitosis" -– The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is the best, and not by just a little.
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 263 out of 286
-
Mixed: 8 out of 286
-
Negative: 15 out of 286
-
the best in the trilogy and the awesomeness in the franchise.
-
"The Two Towers" isn't much epic as its powerful prequel, but its still amazes me that Peter Jackson can release such a wonderful movie within a year.