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THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
The Special Extended Edition of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS is available in two versions- a standard release for $39.98 and a Collector's Gift Set for $79.98. |
This DVD review 
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DVD
reviews are Copyright © 2003 THE CINEMA LASER and may not be copied
or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher. |
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With
the arrival of the Special Extended Edition of THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
THE TWO TOWERS, I am awed at how much better an already fantastic film
has become with the addition of another forty-three minutes of footage. In
my review of the theatrical version of THE TWO TOWERS, I expounded
that watching the film made me feel as though I were in the presence of
cinematic greatness. Well, the Special Extended Edition of THE LORD OF
THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS that sensation is greatly amplified- as if
one were going from a richly woven piece of cloth to a luxuriously fine
tapestry. Even the smallest additions to Peter Jackson’s brilliant film
add to its complexity, as well as creating a greater understanding of and
appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkien’s brilliant fantasy work.
THE
TWO TOWERS is the middle film in the trilogy and as such brings the
viewer into the middle of the action, without explaining what has come
before. Therefore it is essential that one view THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING before even considering watching THE TWO
TOWERS. As THE TWO TOWERS opens, we discover the Fellowship of
The Ring has been broken, with Frodo (Elijah Wood) continuing his quest to
destroy Lord Sauron's Ring of Power, aided only by his good friend and
fellow hobbit Sam (Sean Astin). Although Frodo is troubled by his final
memory of Gandalf The Grey (Ian McKellen), who saved the other members of
The Fellowship by standing his ground against the Balrog, even worse
things come to occupy Frodo’s mind on the long and arduous journey of
Mordor.
As
Frodo and Sam make their way to Mordor, former fellowship members Aragorn
(Viggo Mortensen), Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and Gimli (John Rhys-Davies)
remain in pursuit of the bloodthirsty orcs, who have snatched away hobbits
Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd). However, when Merry and
Pippin escape the Orcs on their own, and wind up in the protective care of
the Ent Treebeard (voiced by John Rhys-Davies), an old friend advises
Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli that their services are desperately needed to
protect the people of Rohan against an overwhelming army of orcs created
by Saruman the White (Christopher Lee). The cast of THE TWO TOWERS
also features Miranda Otto, Bernard Hill, Bruce Hopkins, Brad Dourif, Liv
Tyler, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving.
THE
TWO TOWERS proves to be a much darker film than THE FELLOWSHIP OF
THE RING, even though the two could be easily joined together to
create a cohesive whole. Situations within THE TWO TOWERS turn
dire, with a greater deal of bloodshed, which accounts for the darker tone
of the second film. THE TWO TOWERS also features a marked increase
in action and violence, as well as a seemingly quicker pace than THE
FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. Still, even with the numerous action
sequences, director Peter Jackson recognizes that this is very much a
character driven story and maintains strong character development
throughout the film.
As
I’ve stated in the past, the performances are uniformly excellent, with THE
TWO TOWERS being more of an ensemble piece than THE FELLOWSHIP OF
THE RING, with the focus shifting away from Fodo and onto the plights
of the other characters that have been separated from him. I should also
mention that one of the film’s most intriguing performances is one that
is realized entirely through CGI. The character of Gollum was motion
captured from a live performance by actor Andy Serkis, then digitally
inserted into the film with amazing results. Gollum is without question
the most wholly believable digital character to appear in a movie thus
far.
New
Line Home Entertainment has made the Special Extended Edition of THE
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS available on DVD in 2.35:1 wide
screen presentation that features the anamorphic enhancement for 16:9
displays. As with the Special Edition of THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING,
THE TWO TOWERS has been spread across the first two discs of this
four disc set to maximize the bit rate for both video and audio playback.
Since this is a New Line title, my expectations that this would be an
absolutely stunning DVD have not only been met, they have been exceeded.
The image is just incredible; appearing sharper and better defined than
the theatrical version, which was certainly no slouch on DVD. Owing to the
higher bit rate, clarity is greatly improved, as are the fine details
within the image, plus one gets a sense of greater depth and
dimensionality from the picture, than what was present in the previous
theatrical version DVD. Colors tend to be somewhat subdue by design,
although there are flashes of vibrancy throughout the course of the film.
Blacks are totally pure, as are the whites. The image also boasts
excellent contrast and shadow detail. Digital compression artifacts are
always well concealed, despite the film’s length, multiple soundtracks
and audio commentaries.
The
Special Extended Edition of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
is presented with both Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and DTS 6.1 ES soundtracks. As
good as the visuals are on the DVD, I have to say that the audio portion
of the program proves to be their equal. Digital soundtracks and sound
design seldom come any better than what has been created for THE TWO
TOWERS. Fidelity is astonishingly good for both the music and sound
effects, plus the sound design is so wonderfully enveloping that it draws
the viewer into the world of the film. The sound effects themselves are
aggressively deployed across the forward soundstage and especially in the
surround channels, which seem constantly alive.
The
battle sequences sound absolutely incredible, but then again, so do the
film’s quieter moments, which create a genuine sense of acoustic space.
Dialogue is perfectly rendered, with robust natural timbre and complete
intelligibility. The bass channel is powerful and tends to shake the
ground quite a bit. The differences between the Dolby Digital and DTS
soundtracks are perceivable, but not overly pronounced. DTS does have an
edge in spaciousness, bass reproduction and musical fidelity, but then
again, if you system does not accommodate DTS- the Dolby Digital track
still sounds magnificent. An English Dolby Surround soundtrack is also
encoded onto the DVD, as are English subtitles.
Full
motion video, animation and sound serve to enhance the DVD’s beautifully
designed interactive menus. Through the menus, one has access to the
standard scene selection and set up features, as well as an astonishing
array of supplemental features, which have been spread across all four
discs of this massive DVD set. Discs one and two offer four running
separate audio commentary tracks. All four of the audio commentaries
contain vast amounts of information about the production, and while they
are all worth hearing, there is far too much information to take in during
a short period of time. These commentaries are best sampled over the
course of a few weekends, or across several months. It would be best to
start either with the cast or director's commentaries, depending upon one’s
preference for entertainment value or technical details.
Here
is a rundown of the participants on the four commentary tracks: The
Director And Writers commentary track features Peter
Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. The Design Team
commentary track features production designer Grant Major, creative
supervisor Richard Taylor, conceptual designers Alan Lee and John Howe,
supervising art director Dan Hennah, art department manager Chris Hennah,
plus workshop manager Tania Rodger. The Production/Post-Production
Team commentary track features editor Mike Horton, additional
editor Jabez Olssen, visual effects supervisor Joe Letteri, producer
Barrie Osborne, executive producer Mark Ordesky, director of photography
Andrew Lesnie, co-producer Rick Porras, composer Howard Shore, visual
effects supervisor Jim Rygiel, animation designer Randy Cook, supervising
sound editors Ethan van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins, VFX art director
Christian Rivers, VFX cinematographer Brian Vant Hul, and miniatures
director of photography Alex Funk. The Cast commentary track
features Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic
Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Lee, Sean Bean, Bernard Hill, Miranda
Otto, David Wenham, Brad Dourif, Karl Urban, John Noble, Craig Parker and
Andy Serkis. To avoid confusion during theses multiple participant
commentary tracks, subtitles pop up on screen to identify the speakers.
Discs
three and four are entitled The Appendices and contain hours
and hours of supplemental programming. However, to prevent boring any
readers beyond this point, I will keep my comments on the supplements as
short as possible. Disc Three is entitled The Appendices Part Three:
The Journey Continues. J.R.R. Tolkien- Origins Of
Middle-Earth is a thirty-minute program that looks at the author
and aspects of his life that influenced the trilogy. From Book To
Script-Finding The Story runs twenty minutes and features Peter
Jackson, who discusses the difficulty of adapting the second book of the
trilogy, then make it work in relation to a first and third film. Designing
And Building Middle-Earth clocks in a bit shy of ninety minutes,
but looks at the various aspects of creating the film’s locations and
overall visual appearance. Gollum runs under forty minutes,
but this three-part program thoroughly examines how the digital character
was convincingly brought to life. Middle-Earth Atlas is an
interactive map that allows one to follow the paths taken by the various
characters as they make their way across the landscape of Middle-Earth. New
Zealand As Middle Earth allows one to look at the actual locations
in New Zealand where the middle third of the trilogy was filmed.
Disc
Four is entitled The Appendices Part Four: The Battle For
Middle-Earth Begins. Filming The Two Towers is
broken into two sections and runs more than an hour and forty minutes,
which allows it to provide an extensive look behind-the-scenes at this
difficult action intensive film. Visual Effects looks at the
film’s miniatures, which are made to look huge on the screen, as well as
showing how animatics helped the director in visualizing and creating some
of the effects intensive sequences. Editorial: Refining The Story
is twenty minute program that examines the monumental task of assembling a
huge special effects and action intensive film such as THE TWO TOWERS.
Music And Sound is broken into two sections, with a combined
running time of forty-five minute, which allows it to look at Howard Shore’s
impressive score and then shows how the multiple layers of sound effects
combine together in the final mix. The Battle For Helm’s Deep Is
Over runs under ten minutes but allows the director and cast
members to offer their thoughts on the film during production.
The
Special Extended Edition of THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
is undoubtedly the DVD event of the year. Not only is this incredible
motion picture made even more fantastic by the addition of another
forty-three minutes of footage, the generous and thoughtful supplemental
materials truly make this four disc set something to treasure. As for the
presentation itself, both the image and sound are absolutely first rate
demonstration quality material that everyone with a home theater system is
going to absolutely love. New Line Home Entertainment deserves high praise
for this set and the Special Extended Edition of THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
THE TWO TOWERS is absolutely recommended.
