| 100 |
Boston Globe
The miracle is that 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is better: tighter, smarter, funnier.
|
| 100 |
Time
Towers, 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.
|
| 100 |
New York Daily News
The Two Towers moves faster, covers more ground, has more action and -- with the introduction of the marvelous character Gollum -- packs some much-appreciated laughs.
|
| 100 |
Film Threat
Chuck Russel
Thank you, Mr. Jackson for pushing film into a new age -- Ladies and gentleman, we have our new directing God!
|
| 100 |
ReelViews
Like its predecessor, The Two Towers is a great motion picture, and not to be missed by anyone who appreciates fantasy adventure.
|
| 100 |
New York Magazine
Jackson has a genuine epic gift: Few filmmakers have ever given gross-outs such resplendence.
|
| 100 |
Washington Post
One fabulous Middle-earth show.
|
| 100 |
Washington Post
Gripping, 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.
|
| 100 |
Chicago Tribune
Moviegoers 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.
|
| 100 |
Newsweek
What'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.
|
| 100 |
Wall Street Journal
Casts a spell and then some -- a ringing testament to the power of motion pictures.
|
| 100 |
Film Threat
Eric Campos
There’s no question here that moviegoers will be treated to a completely enveloping, three-hour vacation from reality.
|
| 100 |
Baltimore Sun
The result is harrowing and inspiring. As escapist entertainment, it's the movie of the year.
|
| 100 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
What 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.
|
| 100 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A 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.
|
| 91 |
Portland Oregonian
You 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.
|
| 90 |
The New Yorker
The virtues of Jackson's trilogy, thus far, have been pace and astonishment, which is almost the same thing. [6 January 2003, p. 90]
|
| 90 |
Chicago Reader
One of cinema's most absorbing fantasies.
|
| 90 |
Salon.com
Yes, 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.
|
| 90 |
The New York Times
Never 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.
|
| 90 |
Dallas Observer
The year's greatest adventure, and Jackson's limited but enthusiastic adaptation has made literature literal without killing its soul.
|
| 90 |
Variety
Has a sharper narrative focus and a livelier sense of forward movement than did the more episodic "Fellowship."
|
| 89 |
Austin Chronicle
God 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.
|
| 88 |
USA Today
Epic battles, spectacular effects and multiple story lines make The Two Towers a most excellent middle chapter in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
|
| 88 |
Miami Herald
For 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.
|
| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Most 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.
|
| 75 |
Entertainment Weekly
What 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.
|
| 75 |
San Francisco Chronicle
An outstanding effort that maintains the integrity and purpose that distinguished "The Fellowship of the Ring."
|
| 75 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Jackson'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.
|
| 75 |
New York Post
The 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.
|
| 75 |
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Both a triumph of design and cinematic engineering and, at the same time, long, repetitious and naive.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
A 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.
|
| 75 |
Rolling Stone
Spectacular in every sense of the word, even if you don' t know an Orc from a Uruk-Hai.
|
| 75 |
Charlotte Observer
Seeing 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.
|
| 70 |
LA Weekly
Russel Swensen
Falters precisely because there's not enough stumbling, and far too much striding gallantly forward.
|
| 70 |
Slate
A 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.
|
| 70 |
Village Voice
Jackson'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.
|
| 70 |
Los Angeles Times
If 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.
|
| 60 |
TV Guide
This second installment is heavy on battle sequences, which will thrill some viewers more than others.
|
