Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers ENworld reviews & discussion (SPOILERS)

[KenM]

I really liked TTT but I have to agree with what someone else said, the backround with treebeard in some scenes did not look right to me either. Gimli steals it. My only beef is that once Merry and Pippin get to treebeard, they basically have NOTHING to do. These are major characters just wasted, IMO. I never read book, so don't know if this was Jackson's or JRRT fault.

 

[Broken Fang]

We also saw it at midnight (wife, daughter - the 6 yr old, two of my 8th grade students, and one of their parents).

Thought it was great...can't decide if the first was best (because it was after all the first) or this one was best (because of it epic scale).

Faramir was probably our only gripe. We loved everything else. Deeann, our 6 yr old, thought this one was not scary at all! After her two hour nap, she bounced wide-eyed in her seat the entire length of the movie. She couldn't stop talking about it on the car ride home.

We are also going to see it a few more times over Christmas break...soo much to take in you know you missed things!

Don't think this was mentioned yet but we thought Wormtongue was excellent!

 

[jgbrowning]

well

dissapointed with it. too much changed for no apparant benefit. mostly, im just sick of gimili being a fool. bah!

its still a good movie, but not the movie i expected after FotR.


joe b.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I'll preface this by saying that the movie will probably grow on me. And I very much liked the portrayal of Edoras and Rohorrim, the Ents, Gollum, and even the Wargs looked right. Visually, it was a very impressive film. Eowyn was perfect too.

On the other hand, the characterization seemed off. It was as if Peter Jackson wasn't about to let any of the male characters be willing to get with the program without being pushed into it by a woman, a hobbit, or necessity. The most noticable changes were in Treebeard and Faramir's characters. In the book, both of them recognize the situation and are able to decide to do the right thing more or less immediately (for Treebeard though, immediate needs to be defined in entish terms). In the movie, "time for Faramir to show his quality" takes on exactly the opposite meaning because, unlike in the book, he fails the test. Given that this change meant cutting dialogue (between Frodo and Farmir at their initial meeting and Sam accidentally giving away that Frodo has the Ring) in favor of adding battle scenes which weren't in the book (battle of Osgiliath, the warg attack) into a movie that already was chock full of battle sequences, it really rankled.

Less obnoxious changes included Theoden's resentment towards Gondor and Elrond's desire to leave middle earth rather than fight it out. The arrival of the elves at Helm's Deep was almost a neutral change except that I gather they're supposed to represent Elrond being convinced to aid in the battle. If that's the case, it makes no sense that Haldir would be the one to show up. He's one of the Galadhrim.

Even Aragorn got into the act. In the portion leading up to the battle of Helm's Deep, it seemed like he never got around to deciding whether he was going to counsel Theoden to courage or give in to despair himself. It was only when he realized there was no way out that he really began acting consistently.

 

[KChagga]

I really enjoyed this movie. For the most part I think that the changes from the book worked quite well in the movie. The warg battle in particulur was needed to pick up the movie a little. Although I found the ending of that scene totally unnecessary. There really was no need for it and it didn't add anything to the movie.
One thing I didn't like was the ent voices. From the books I had the impression that ent voices were very loud and bellowing. The voices should have rocked the theatre with bass. HOOOMM-HUUUMMMM. They also should have had Merry and Pippin drink the ent drink. Now they can't have them grow taller in the next movie. Probably an extended edition scene.
Just imagine if they made the battle at Helm's Deep this good then the battle for Minas Tirith is going to be friggin unbelievable.

My copy of FoTR is from the 70's(my mother's copy) and it clearly says that the two towers is Orthanc and Barad Dur.

Overall the worst thing about this movie is waiting 365 days to see the next one

 

[Wormwood]

Great movie, go see it.

My only gripe: Enough with the Elvish already.

A little goes a long way.

ps. Tolkien was ambiguous about that the Two Towers referred to. Check out this page for reference

 

[Dr Midnight]

Second viewing, and man, I liked it more this time. It went much more quickly, and I didn't have that jolted sense of Uh-Oh going into the first half-hour. Ahhh... and Gimli just endeared himself further to me. I shouted with glee when he was tossed.

Something I didn't mention before, that's almost a nitpick: Theoden under Saruman's spell. From the book's description, I got the impression that Theoden was just feeling and acting older, not looking it at all. I was expecting Bernard Hill to do a fine job of straightening in his throne and making me believe he'd been FEELING older than he was, but the movie gave us the really really (really) old and quite nasty King Theoden. I'm almost disappointed, but I liked the movie's take on it as well. I shrugged and kept on enjoying.

Wormtongue- excellent.

There's nothing like being in the theater with a good crowd- both times I've seen it, there've been cheers for Gimli's acts, Legolas's horse-vault, and that one flaming ent dousing himself in the flood. It's terrific to watch a movie that way- hearing the gasps, laughs, and cheers doubles the effect for me, and makes me grin like a stupid ninny. EXCEPT- both times, the theater laughed at Gollum's mono-dialogue. I feel like it was a very serious and dangerous thing we were watching (for the most part), and the crowd were chuckling at him like "oh, the silly little imp, ha ha."

I'm more and more pleased with this movie. I think at this point I'm as jazzed as I was last year after my second viewing, and that's saying a hell of a lot. I'd love to buy PJ a drink, and I wish his family a very happy holiday season, and many to come.

I always get sappy when I'm overjoyed. Smack me already.

 

[Cullain]

commercials

What is the deal with commercials before the movie and who gets paid fr them the theater or the movie company? I can see commercials before crappy low expectation movies, but this movie will make more money on opening weekend than my entire neighborhood will make their entire lives. What's the deal?

The movie theaters get the money from those commercials. The movie theatres get very little money from the tickets sold, most of their income is from refreshment sales, and things like those ads. I can't stand the commercials myself, but people haven't really complained all that much about them, so there here to stay, at least for the forseeable future.

Cullain

 

[jgbrowning]

There's nothing like being in the theater with a good crowd- both times I've seen it, there've been cheers for Gimli's acts, Legolas's horse-vault, and that one flaming ent dousing himself in the flood. It's terrific to watch a movie that way- hearing the gasps, laughs, and cheers doubles the effect for me, and makes me grin like a stupid ninny. EXCEPT- both times, the theater laughed at Gollum's mono-dialogue. I feel like it was a very serious and dangerous thing we were watching (for the most part), and the crowd were chuckling at him like "oh, the silly little imp, ha ha."

I had the same experience. I just chocked it up to those who hadn't read the book didn't really know what was going on in side the wretched creatures head. Of course, Jackson helped that response along by making gollum a bit more comedic than in the story.

Also, in recent Pop memory, jar-jar binks and dobie the elf (the other all-animated creatures of significance) were also played in a comedic manner. It doesn't help that in the language of the characters is similiar (ie. butchered english third person I stuff) and i think that that's another unconscious clue the audience is picking up on. Again, were they to have read the books, they'd know gollum really spoke like that 50 years ago or so.

Jackson hinted at the golum=frodo aspect, and that was nice, but i think it would have been more interesting were it less comedic and more dangerous.

'course, i could be wrong...

joe b.

 

[jgbrowning]

Re: commercials

The movie theaters get the money from those commercials. The movie theatres get very little money from the tickets sold, most of their income is from refreshment sales, and things like those ads. I can't stand the commercials myself, but people haven't really complained all that much about them, so there here to stay, at least for the forseeable future.

Cullain

I've read somewhere that commercials in movies are something like 400% more memerable than tv commercials. if you want them to go away, complain to the theatre and if your ever polled about commercials just go.. "what? i didn't notice".. ?

They'll listen to that. I worked for the Gallup poll and people that don't have a clue get listened to a lot...

joe b.