Two Towers 'bloodier, more compelling'

By KATHERINE HOBY and AGENCIES

It snowed like something out of Middle Earth for the New York world premiere of Peter Jackson's second instalment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The movie was hailed as richer, bloodier and more compelling than last year's Fellowship of the Ring.

The chill of the snowstorm that heralded the opening of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers did not dampen the enthusiasm of fans who queued to see the stars turn up for the opening.

Cast members, including Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood and newcomer Miranda Otto, turned up with director Peter Jackson, and 1000 other celebrities. They later attended a post-premiere party at the New York Library.

Sky Movies critic Sandro Manetti gushed that chapter two of the Tolkien epic was "even better than the first Lord of the Rings movie ...

"It's straight into the action from the start and there's no let-up for the next three hours. Peter Jackson captures some of the most ferocious battle scenes ever put on film and puts his camera right in among the blood and guts."

Oscar-winning Richard Taylor, of Weta Digital - which created the film's dazzling visual effects - described The Two Towers as epic. "There's no doubt that it is a grandly more epic movie, and the critics are indeed professing that it's a greater movie than film one, but it's all about a single story," he said.

Glossy British magazine Hotdog gave the film a five-star rating. "The Two Towers surpasses all levels of expectation, and in the process it makes everything that The Fellowship of the Ring achieved look tame by comparison," it gushed.

"It just rockets forward, firing on all cylinders."

The Two Towers does not suffer fools gladly. There is no recap of the action from the first film.

There appear to be two stand-out features in the second film. The first is the creation of the character Gollum, who, it seems to be universally agreed, is a creepy special-effects masterpiece. And the second is the climactic battle scene, a spectacular half-hour, full-scale battle for Helm's Deep.

Jackson says he did not realise at the time that what he thought was particularly good acting by Viggo Mortensen was actually the actor breaking his toes.

In one scene in The Two Towers, Mortensen, who plays Aragorn, comes across some burning bodies that he thinks are Hobbits. Directing Mortensen, Jackson suggested he kick one of the helmets in frustration. "On the fifth take, Viggo kicked the helmet, screamed, clenched his fists and dropped to his knees," Jackson told www.suntimes.com.

"I thought he was just doing some powerful acting. But then I noticed after I said 'cut' that he wasn't saying anything. Finally, he did the next scene limping."

Once they had finished filming, Jackson made the actor take off his boot.

"His toes were broken. Normally, an actor would yell 'ow!' if they hurt themselves, and stop the scene.

"Viggo turned a broken toe into a performance that's a great moment in the film."

Attention has now turned to how the film might fare in various film awards. The first movie picked up four Oscars.

* The film's New Zealand premiere is in Wellington on December 18.

Herald feature: Lord of the Rings