Anna Daniels
All three Lord of the Rings films were fantastic, but you really can’t beat The Two Towers. We kick things off after a rather bittersweet ending to 2001’s The Fellowship of the Ring, in which Boromir died, Frodo struck out alone, Sam nearly drowned getting to him, and Merry and Pippin were captured by orcs. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli head out not to escort Frodo to Mordor, but instead to save the other two hobbits. Their journey leads them to a resurrected Gandalf and into Rohan, which is besieged by the forces of the evil wizard Saruman (who’s working for the Big Bad, Sauron).
Meanwhile, bumbling hobbits Merry and Pippin manage to convince a group of walking, talking (and rather apathetic) trees to take the fight to Saruman after he slaughtered their brethren in a deforestation binge. Further east, Frodo and Sam capture the Ring-obsessed Gollum and force him to guide them to Mordor, only to get caught themselves by foot soldiers from Gondor who mistake them for spies and plan to turn them in. There’s more than enough world-class fantasy filmmaking for fans to sink their teeth into. But nothing matches the jaw-dropping spectacle that is the ferocious, desperate, and terrifying Battle of Helm’s Deep. It doesn’t quite surpass Saving Private Ryan‘s opening Omaha Beach sequence on the list of all-time greatest battle scenes, but it came damn close, and hasn’t really been equaled since.
Written by: Looper
