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The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

tomatometer

96

Average Rating: 8.4/10
Reviews Counted: 222
Fresh: 213 | Rotten: 9

The Two Towers continues the LOTR trilogy with few missteps.

100

Average Rating: 7.9/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 0

The Two Towers continues the LOTR trilogy with few missteps.

audience

92

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 1,207,142

My Rating

Movie Info

The second film in Peter Jackson's series of screen adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's internationally popular Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers literally begins where The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ended, with the Fellowship splitting into three groups as they seek to return the Ring to Mordor, the forbidding land where the powerful talisman must be taken to be destroyed. Frodo (Elijah Wood), who carries the Ring, and his fellow Hobbit Sam (Sean

Aug 26, 2003

$340.5M

New Line Cinema

Cast

All Critics (223) | Top Critics (38) | Fresh (232) | Rotten (9) | DVD (71)

More graphic in its violence and more fantastic in its imaginings than the first film.

March 5, 2008 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This second installment in the trilogy ends with Gandalf intoning that the battle for Middle-Earth is about to begin. I'm pumped.

August 7, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Magazine | Comment
New York Magazine
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A brilliantly conceived adventure that has the capacity to take your breath away.

January 25, 2003 Comment
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

January 14, 2003 Comment
Newsweek
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A thrilling work of film craft.

January 13, 2003 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Spectacular in every sense of the word, even if you don' t know an Orc from a Uruk-Hai.

January 9, 2003 Comment
Rolling Stone
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The Two Towers, then, is the greatest blockbuster ever made without either a beginning or an end, a feisty beast with a hollow ring in its bones.

December 9, 2011 Full Review Source: Birmingham Mail | Comment

If you're not already on board, you scrabble around as best you can, and this means hard work, which is something rare -- and yes, exhilarating -- in a modern blockbuster.

November 15, 2011 Full Review Source: smh.com.au | Comment
smh.com.au

An insurmountable amount of extras comes second only to New Line Home Video's stunning visual and audio transfer of Peter Jackson's exhilarating and exhausting epic.

July 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

The second chapter of Peter Jackson's seminal epic disffers from the first in narrative and tone, there are more battle scenes and the mood is darker.

June 21, 2011 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | Comment

Andy Serkis's work in creating Gollum deserved an honorary Academy Award. His gestures and voice, not computer software, make Gollum so memorable as he wrestles with his inner homicidal maniac. A soaring, searing tale of wonderment.

September 19, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com | Comment
Suite101.com

Outstanding, but has very violent battle scenes.

July 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comments (3)
Common Sense Media

...a wonderfully entertaining piece of filmmaking, filled with as much spectacle and wonder as any motion picture I've seen. (Blu-ray Extended Edition set)

March 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Gollum and the battles are a triumph of integrated art and technology, and the battles a masterstroke of sheer logistics. (Extended Edition)

March 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

To say that this is a great movie would be an understatement.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
Cinema Crazed

Spectacular entertainment.

February 18, 2009 Full Review Source: TheMovieReport.com | Comment
TheMovieReport.com

Glorious escapism that will not make you feel dirty the morning after.

April 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

The battle is one of the best of its kind in film history, a symphony of bloodlust and hopes dashed and restored.

August 13, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

Yes, Peter Jackson demands nine hours of your time. But I can't think of a director more deserving.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound | Comments (2)
Big Picture Big Sound

If you don't already own the (Extended Edition) DVDs, this Limited Edition comes highly recommended.

September 20, 2006 Full Review Source: DVDTalk.com | Comment
DVDTalk.com

In size and scale, Jackson has redefined the word 'epic' -- but his attention to the small things really gives this series its awesome stature.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

And the Masterpiece continues.

September 30, 2005 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs | Comment
Three Movie Buffs
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Definitely one of the most authentic and powerful films to be produced by Peter Jackson, as can be said for the others, but this one just seems to shine as my favourite for both it's plot and strong casting line up, being the second in the trilogy, this installment could be seen merely as a lead up to one of the

March 25, 2012
scottgreen96

Super Reviewer

THE TWO TOWERS is truly the best LORD OF THE RINGS film, and it really should have won the Oscar for Best Picture, if any in the epic trilogy. This one is the most interesting, and it doesn't carry on forever at all.

June 14, 2011
spielberg00
Alexander Diminiano

Super Reviewer

    1. Legolas: They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!
    2. Aragorn: Saruman!
    – Submitted by Billy H (17 days ago)
    1. Éomer: What business does an elf, a man and a dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly!
    2. Gimli: Give me your name horse-master, and I shall give you mine.
    3. Éomer: I would cut off your head, dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground...
    4. Legolas: [notches an arrow and points at Eomer] You would die before your stroke fell!
    – Submitted by Ahmad L (35 days ago)
    1. Frodo Baggins: I can't do this, Sam.
    2. Samwise Gamgee: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
    3. Frodo Baggins: What are we holding onto, Sam?
    4. Samwise Gamgee: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
    – Submitted by Tearra D (46 days ago)
    1. Gimli: What's going on out there?
    2. Legolas: Shall I describe it to you? Or will you like me to find you a box?
    – Submitted by Shandelle L (50 days ago)
    1. Gimli: What's happening out there?
    2. Legolas: Shall I describe it to you? Or would you like me to find you a box?
    – Submitted by Rocky F (2 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Der Herr der Ringe - Die zwei Türme (DE)
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (UK)
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