Thursday, Dec. 12, 2002
The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, New Zealand
It's hard to say this one is even better than The Fellowship of the Ring. The first two episodes are so different in tone and scope. Towers, focusing on the siege of Rohan, is a very war-y war movie, with eerie reverbs of the West's current fear of spectral terrorists. But the film's real battle is within Frodo the Hobbit as he comes close to surrendering himself to the sick glow of the One Ring. Spectacle, romance, wizardly film craft: this superior sequel is about three-fifths of everything movies can do.