[OT, spoilers] LOTR - The Two Towers

[KnowTheToe]

Excellent movie. I loved it, even at 3:30 in the morning when I was walking out of the theater. Pacing was good, humor was well timed and funny, acting and directing excellent.

As in the book there is a hell-of-a-lot going on in this movie. I can understand people wanting a little more character/relationship building in a few parts of this movie, but I just don't think there was any time. In essence there were three stories going on and like the book, the movie jumped between them covering everything the best they could. I bet the extended version will have more of the character developement scenes that some people missed. I can't wait to see it again!

One hour pre-movie nap and two hours sleep after. I am ready for a full day .

 

[KnowTheToe]

The only peeve I have is... why do they hate dwarves so much?

Gimli was the star of the movie. On the wall of Helms Deep as the orcs climbed up the ladder, he was knocking them down as fast as they could climb, all the while bellowing out his body count which echoed across the battlefield, and you already mentioned the bridge scene. All of the fun was good natured adding a light touch to an otherwise dark mooded movie. Any character that gets smooshed by a large mount is going to have a difficulty in wriggling free. All I can say is "Go ahead, toss me."

 

[Dispater]

"Two Thumbs up"

I agree with most of the above. As it is the movie is extremely dark compared to the first - and suffers from being the middle-movie, trying to tie all the plots from Tolkien's book together while still making an enjoyable movie with a story arc, character development and entertainment, entertainmen, entertainment. PJ has done a very well job - even in the parts where he chose to go away from the book. People tend to forget that its 'based on' - not the exact filmatic copy of the LOTR.

Gollum was the best CGI'ed character I've ever seen. I found myself thinking during the move that this is a real actor rather than a clever animator. His split personality dialogue scene was rather ambitious (choosing one camera angle for each personality and cutting between), but it established his character clearly for the audience who hadn't read the book. I still wonder about when he says 'she will do it for us' at the end (got the suspicion it's Shelob (?))

Faramir's character didn't stand out to me. But there's so much going on. His part of the story was overshadowed by the intercutting with the IMMENSE battle scenes of Helm's Deep. Theoden's character got a lot of time - as well did PJ decide to let the camera stay with the Rohan people, which worked fine. Viggo simply is Aragorn. Gimli strikes me as the most sympathetic character of the entire movie.

To me the thrill of going to the movie upon having read the book several times is to see PJ's personal take on LOTR, not the exact copy. For that I say, big kudos to the man.

 

[FireLance]

Gollum was the best CGI'ed character I've ever seen. I found myself thinking during the move that this is a real actor rather than a clever animator.

According to this "behind the scenes" (Return to Middle Earth) special that I saw on television yesterday (I live in Singapore, so most of you shouldn't bother checking your TV Guides), a real actor played the part of Gollum during the shootings. After the location shots were done, he would repeat the scenes again with a motion capture device so that the CGI character could be rendered more accurately. The man deserves an Oscar for the sheer effort he put in.

 

[Celtavian]

Re

I am fairly sure that the extended edition will have more interaction between Faramir and the Hobbits.

The movie was 3 hours and they were barely able to get everything in. It was awsome in the true sense of the word.

 

[Dragongirl]

Quite possibly the greatest film I have ever seen. Tolkien purists be damned.

While I understand that you don't care for how some people don't like the movies or complain about some items because they are different than the books, I just want to point out one thing.

If there were no Tolkein "purists", fans, cultist, whatever you want to call them there never would have been LotR brought to the screen. I concider myself a purist, but I am not so hung up on the changes that I can't enjoy the movies so don't damn us all.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

If there were no Tolkein "purists", fans, cultist, whatever you want to call them there never would have been LotR brought to the screen. I concider myself a purist, but I am not so hung up on the changes that I can't enjoy the movies so don't damn us all.

Seconded. I'm a Tolkien geek of the highest order, and I'm enjoying everything immensely.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

And a ditto.

I consider myself a purist (the books are my all-time favorite works of literature) -- but I still loved the movies, despite any negative criticism I have posted. I recognize that the movie and book by nature must be different things, and where Peter Jackson's vision is slightly different he remains true to the spirit of the work.

Two thumbs up, and drooling for ROTK!

 

[KnowTheToe]

I concider myself a purist, but I am not so hung up on the changes that I can't enjoy the movies so don't damn us all.

Damn them all, Damn them all! Haa ahaaa haaa. Sorry about that, I could not resist.

 

[Cullain]

Mr. Jackson does like his dwarf jokes, no?

Saw it today at 8pm; my initial impressions:

1) The opening scene is utterly wonderful, as is the battle on Zirakzigil.

2) Not enough time spent developing the ents and their response to Saruman. I would have preferred less of the Battle of Helm's Deep and more Treebeard/Merry/Pippin dialogue.

3) Personally, I found Faramir a bit overly unsympathetic. I'd have preferred a greater development in Frodo's and Sam's relationship with him from severe mistrust to respect.

4) Gollum is just magnificent. Well acted, wonderfully scripted, and the CGI isn't bad either.

5) Theoden's transformation from withered shell to active leader is a bit too severe, IMHO. I'd have preferred a more subtle change, and for Bernard Lewis to have been made up to look a bit older even after being cleansed of Saruman's influence.

6) The film's structure varies WIDELY from that of the book. Personally, I think the film was very well structured, and that the filmmakers made excellent decisions vis-a-vis elimination of certain portions of the book and re-ordering of certain other portions.

Overall, I have to say that I liked this one less than Fellowship. It's got great action scenes, but IMHO less mythic complexity, dramatic development, and power than FotR. Much of this is the fault of the book, which as a middle book must have been more difficult to conceive and implement as a film. But in general, this one has fewer "soft" bits than FotR, and since I tend to think that FotR handled the soft bits well, I miss them here. Also, the filming style here is much more heavy-handed (dramatic lighting and LOTS of slow-mo). There is some cinematic imagination at work (notably the beginning and a crazily-transforming dream sequence in the middle) but less than in FotR, IMHO. Not to say that The Two Towers isn't GREAT, but I don't think it's quite the equal of Fellowship.

Oh, and Eowyn's character is developed with incredible sensitivity and pathos. She's acted well too.

2) I agree completely. The ents were my favorite part of the LOTR books, by far. If you had given me $310 million dollars to make these movies, $305 million would have gone to the ents.

Which might explain why no one ever approached me about it...

4) I REALLY dislike CGI characters. But Gollum was fantastic, he seemed far more real than any previous CGI character.

5) Yeah, I thought the effects of removing Sauromon's domination was far more physical then I would have preferred.

6) I've noticed a lot of quibbling among Tolkein purists about how PJ butchered important plot points. But I thought he did a very good job of re-structuring things in a way that allowed him to advance the plot in 3 hours.

Overall: I too, missed the soft bits from the first movie. But there were things I thought it did better(notably pacing), and if it's not quite as good as the first movie, it's very, very close

-Cullain