Staff Review - The Lord Of The Rings: THE TWO TOWERS

[Watcher]

Roadshow Entertainment.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS:
THE TWO TOWERS

Released: August 26, 2003.
Rating: M 15+
RRP: $49.95

DISC FEATURES AND SPECS:

2 DVDs

On The Set "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" Starz Encore Special

Return To Middle Earth Warner Bros Special

"The Long and Short of It" - A short film directed by Sean Astin

The Making-of "The Long and Short of It"

lordoftherings.net Featurettes

Theatrical Trailers

TV Spots

Music Video

Special Extended DVD Edition Preview

Behind the Scenes preview of "The Return of the King"

"The Return of the King" Video Game Preview by EA

Audio: English in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround.

Aspect: 2.35:1 widescreen, 16:9 enhanced.

Subtitles: Greek as well as English for the Hearing Impaired.

Running Time: 172.04 minutes

CAST:
Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving, Christopher Lee, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler.
Directed By: Peter Jackson


FROM THE BACK COVER:
The Fellowship has broken, but the quest to destroy the One Ring continues. Frodo and Sam must entrust their lives to Gollum if they are to find their way to Mordor. As Saruman's army approaches, the surviving members of The Fellowship, along with people and creatures from Middle-Earth, prepare for battle. The War of the Ring has begun. Nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture.


AUDIO/VISUAL:
Audio:
Viewers have the choice of Dolby Digital 5.1and Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo surround sound when watching this DVD version of the movie.
One of the things I remember most about the Dolby Digital 5.1 track is the amount of use that the rear speakers get during this movie. They were rarely silent and if so, it was never for long.
Whether it be the abient sounds of wind blowing from behind, trees ominously creaking, chanting and marching hoards, galloping horses hooves, whooshing arrows, clashing swords (damn, I could go on forever with this movie) or the excellent score ( which is done again by Howard Shore and sounds very much like the first movie), they all come from the rear in varying degrees of subtlety or aggression to make this one very immersive and enveloping soundtrack.
Then there's the sub. It kicks in during the very first sequence of the movie and is put to work many more times before the movie is over.
Audio from the front of the room hardly has a chance to dominate things, with such an insistent surround mix, but what it does offer though is a rock solid sound stage that includes dialogue that has a great deal of clarity to it and fits in well with the whole scheme of things, as well as a sometimes unrestrained mix that makes use of directional audio where required.
All up, the audio comes together very well to plant viewers in the middle of things and this is one movie where you'll want to fight off family members to sit in that sweet spot to take advantage of the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix.

Video:
I think we all knew that this was going to look first-rate on DVD and after finally having the pleasure of reviewing this DVD presentation, I can say that we were all correct of course.
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 widescreen and is 16:9 enhanced and the amount of detail and clarity that this film is presented with is outstanding.
There wasn't a single thing that I could see wrong with this transfer that was worth mentioning.
Colours are admirable, but the deliberate digital enhancement of some shading can make colours vary from natural and realistic in some situations to totally vibrant and just beaming with colour in others when required. This gives a nice touch to the feel of the film.
There is a layer change and it occurs at the 86.59 minute mark of the movie. It happens very quickly, but I could still notice the slight interruption it made to the audio when viewing it on both of my Pioneer DVD players. Having said that, I was the only one out of the 4 people who have watched it with me over the last week to have spotted it.
You know that this was always going to look awesome on DVD, and when you get to see this region 4 DVD version for yourself, you'll get to see just how good it is!

EXTRA FEATURES:
DISC ONE -
Clicking on the New Line logo towards the bottom of the main menu will give you a bunch of credits for the DVD. Areas covered are the DVD Documentaries, DVD Production Services, DVD Menu Design & Production, Video Mastering and DVD Audio Services. Selecting each of these just gives you a page of text containing the credits for that particular area.

DISC TWO -

On The Set "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" Starz Encore Special -
Here you have a 14.04 minute featurette comprised of interviews, behind the scenes footage and clips from the movie. There are interview clips of all the major cast members talking about reactions to the first movie (Fellowship of the Ring), where The Two Towers is headed, the inclusion of new characters and the growth/development of returning characters and more.
This is a nice featurette with some interesting interview clips that are worth watching.

Return To Middle -earth: WB Special -
Running for 42.59 minutes, and presented in widescreen, this appears to be a television special that takes a look at the film just before its release in the US cinemas. The narrator tells us of the story so far and where the story is going in this second film, while along the way it features interviews with Peter Jackson and some of the major cast who talk about things such as the production of the movie, their roles and personal experiences from doing so. It also shows behind the scenes footage as well as plenty of footage from the film too.

"The Long and Short of It" - A short film directed by Sean Astin -
Running from 7.08 minutes the selection starts out with an introduction to this short film by its director Sean Astin. The actual film runs for 5.53 minutes and stars 3 members of the cast/crew for "The Two Towers" and was written and directed by Sean Astin while on location in Wellington during filming for "The Two Towers". Also included is a short cameo appearance by Peter Jackson.
Set to classical music this amusing short film is presented in widescreen with Dolby 2.0 audio.

The Making-of "The Long and Short of It" -
8.11 minute Making-of featurette for Sean Astins short film "The Long and Short of It".
Includes behind-the-scenes footage and some amusing interview clips of the "Two Towers" cast and crew members who were involved in the making of this short film.

lordoftherings.net Featurettes -
lordoftherings.net featurettes is broken up into the following 8 selections:

* Forces of Darkness (4,37) - Focuses on the dark forces depicted in the movie and includes clips from the movie, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews.
* Designing the Sounds of Middle-earth (4.03) - Looks at the sound effects used in the film, how they were created etc…
* Edoras: The Rohan Capital (4.45) - A short featurette that looks at the people of Rohan, the location of the Rohan capital Edoras, the creation and eventual dismantaling of the sets and more.
* Creatures of Middle-earth (4.39) - A behind-the-scenes look at the design process for creating the creatures of Middle-earth.
* Gandalf The White (2.52) - The title here pretty much says it all. This short featurette looks at the role of Gandalf in the film and includes footage from the film along with interview clips of Ian McKellan discussing his character.
* Arms and Armor (4.45) - Looks at the creation of the weapons and armor used throughout the film.
* The Battle of Helm's Deep - Focuses on the filming of the Battle of Helm's Deep scenes in the movie and includes interview clips and behind-the-scenes footage.
* Brining Gollum to Life (4.16) - Again, the title here says it all. There is behind the scenes footage and interview clips here which show how the character of Gollum was brought to life on screen.

Theatrical Trailers -
There are two trailers provided here. The first of these is a 1.53 minute Teasr and the second is a 2.55 minute Theatrical trailer. Both of these are presented in widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

TV Spots -
There are 16 TV Spots provided here with each one presented in widescreen with Dolby 2.0 audio
The TV Spots available are as follows:
* New Power (0.32)
* Another (0.32)
* Event (0.32)
* Dream (0.33)
* Darkness (0.32)
* Return (0.32)
* Strike (0.32)
* Countdown (0.32)
* One Word Review (0.32)
* The Wait Is Over (0.32)
* Review B/Golden Globes (0.32)
* Gollum (0.32)
* Supreme Review (0.32)
* Review A.Globe (0.32)
* Good Top 10 (0.32)
* Top Ten Review (0.32)
Each of these can be selected and played individually or you can use the Play All option provided.

Music Video -
Here you will find the 4.02 minute music video of Emiliana Torrini's "Gollum's Song". Presented in widescreen with Dolby 2.0 audio this music video features clips from "The Two Towers" along with footage of the artist performing the song.

Special Extended DVD Edition Preview -
This preview looks at some of the extra footage that appears in the Special Extended DVD Edition of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and includes interviews with some of the cast and crew talking about these extra scenes and how they effect the movie as a whole. Presented in widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 Audio.

Behind the Scenes preview of "The Return of the King" -
This is a 12.36 minute behind the scenes look at the third instalment of The Lord of the Rings - "The Return of the King". This is basically a preview of the upcoming movie along with an introduction and interview clips of Peter Jackson and various cast and crew talking about where the new film will take us. This is a very nice segment that is presented in widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. Be warned though……this is basically one BIG spoiler so if you don't want to know anything about the new movie don't watch it!

"The Return of the King" Video Game Preview by EA -
As the title suggest this is a quick 3.02 minute preview for the new Lord of the Rings "The Return of the King" video game released by EA. Presented in widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio this preview not only displays bits from the new game but also clips from the previous game, there are also behind the scenes shots of the actors from the movie providing the voices for the games and more.


A MEMORABLE MOMENT FROM THIS DVD:
There are parts of the story that I could mention here, but the audio-visual quality of this DVD presentation is first-rate.

OVERALL:
At just under three hours, you want a movie that will keep your mind off the fact that it runs for this long and I think that in the case of The Two Towers, it delivers.
As far as the DVD goes, it's a winner in the audio-visual department and the extra features are good, but if it's extra features that you are looking for, the November release is the one to save up for. There is going to be a stack of them and the cool thing is that the ones here on this release will not be repeated on that release.
With the Special Extended Edition being released in November, many people will be wondering about which version to buy. I guess it just depends on how passionate you are about experiencing this movie on DVD, but with the exceptional audio-visual quality of this Theatrical DVD release, I do recommend that at the very least, you set aside some time to go and hire this version and fully enjoy what is, The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers on region 4 DVD.
This 2 disc theatrical version of The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers is out now and has a RRP of $49.95

Rating out of 5
VIDEO QUALITY	4.75
AUDIO QUALITY	4.5
EXTRAS	3.5
THE MOVIE	4.5
OVERALL	4.5