"The Lord of the Rings: "THE TWO TOWERS"

Went with my wife on her day off. She bought tickets early in the week, so we just walked up, in and sat down.

BTW, is that directors cut also available in VHS?

I believe the Extended FOTR is only on DVD. It really isn't a director's cut as Jackson went back to the New Zealand studio and locations a shot all new material to fill in such things as Gilmli's infatuation with Galadriel. It's a good reason to invest in a DVD player -- they've come down in price but I still would recommend spending no less that $150.00 -- the laser alignments and drawer mechanics of the machines at $60.00 to $100.00 seem to have some problems when you read Epinions and you sacrifice a lot of features. Progressive scan is great to have as it utilizes a digital process that coordinates with the frames of the film.

42M opening day for TTT:

http://www.tolkien-movies.com/words/words.php?id=323

I saw The Two Towers yesterday. Very good film, slightly better than the first one, IMO. I haven't yet met anyone who didn't like it.

I haven't read the books. But the Smeagal character is astounding. He may not be part of the Fellowship, but is sure more interesting than anyone else.

I loved it! Saw it on thursday with my sis and bro.

I have mixed feelings about the second film. I found the whole Arwen leaving Middle Earth (will she or won't she?) subplot tedious in the EXTREME. I found the several instances where the plot departs from the book (for no apparent reason, mind you) annoying. To wit, the erstwhile "exile" of Eomer, the elves coming to the aid of Helm's Deep, Frodo's whole sidetrip to Osgiliath (complete with confrontation with a Nazgul) and the complete disappearance of the trees of Fangorn that ended the siege of Helm's Deep in the book.

On the other hand, I loved watching the hunt of Aragorn. Legolas and Gimli on the trail of the kidnapped halflings, the byplay of the pursued orcs, the transformation of Theoden from nearly witless dotard to vibrant, vital ruler and the nifty confrontation with the Warg Riders. And the siege of Helm's Deep was simply MAGNIFICENT! Truly a stupendous bit of filmmaking and one which makes me yearn to see the pending siege of Gondor. The Ents were also enjoyable, thoroughly living up to my anticipation, although their presence in the film felt distinctly, hoom... truncated. But then, the race of Men are such HASTY folk, so perhaps that explains it.

In short, while I enjoyed portions of the film, it was definitely a flawed viewing experience for me. The FOTR was a movie that literally moved me to tears at viewing such a perfect (well, nearly) recreation of what I, in my mind's eye, had envisioned as Middle Earth. While I felt that way at certain points about the Two Towers, it was an experience disjointed by the inexplicable alterations made to Tolkien's perfectly servicable plot.

my sister, who re-read the books just a few months ago, noted the diversions that the film made.

Oh, yes. I forgot to mention that the Smeagol/Gollum character was equally incredible to watch. Truly amazing that a computer generated character could so dominate every scene in which he appeared.

Jackson has explained why he made the changes which didn't create anything new, it rearranged events, borrowing some from the third book. I suspect the Arwen romance is something that will have more meaning in the final movie. I am seeing it in the next couple of days.

Every time I try to go to one of the two venues in Boston that are showing the film, tickets are sold out. It's a conspiracy, that's what it is. And I shouldn't wonder if the Dark Lord is behind it all.

Buy your tickets online. I've had great luck getting into hot new movies that way.

We buy tickets days ahead of time. When they open the doors, we just walk in. Kinda confuses all those standing in line!

blacksmithn says:



The added Arwen scenes are discussed in the first Appendix to Book 3. When watching the movie, I took this portion as being dreaming sequences from Aragorn. The tale is pretty true to this portion of the book, and I took it as the way the director could get this important part of Tolkein into the picture. I received this tip from LW and then pursued researching it.

blacksmithn says:



If you are talking about the distruction of Fanghorn, I think that may have been around Isengard, which is the destruction that the Ents were so upset, along with the simple fact that men were slowy destroying the whole of Fangorn - not to mention all the forests were no longer connected. Saurman had been destroying the forest around Isengard to fuel his mighty war machine. I will look for the destruction around Helm's Gate when I see the film again in a few weeks. The other points you made were a point of contention and marvel to me also.

Re: Fangorn forest-- In the book, the siege of Helm's Deep was ended by the appearance of the trees of Fangorn before the castle, presumably shepherded to the spot by the Ents. The men of Rohan, including Eomer, sallied and drove the orcs into the trees, where they were destroyed.

In the film, the siege is brought to a conclusion by the return of the previously exiled Eomer and his men, accompanied by Gandalf, riding to the rescue in the (ta-da) nick of time.

I know which version of the story I prefer.

As for the Arwen sequences, perhaps there was a REASON Tolkien consigned them to an Appendix (like, it would've bogged down the otherwise exciting plot with an obscure and rather pointless sidelight). It certainly seemed so to me.

I saw it a few days ago with my husband and two grown sons. All of us enjoyed it even more than we had anticipated.

As others have mentioned, the Smeagel character was beyond belief. His crazy eyes, body language, his scizophrenia(sp), skipping from one personality to another, were mind boggling. Really unbelievably well done.

There was a darkness to the film that was appropriate to Frodo's increasing reaction to the ring. In the first film, I didn't like the actor chosen to portray Frodo--he didn't seem like my idea of a hobbit. This time I thought he captured the character beautifully.

blacksmithn, I just got through Helm's Deep last night and remember how much I had liked the trees having moved into the area while the battle was ongoing. Yeap, I agree with you.

As to the Arwen thing. I can see it both ways. Don't want to ruin it for those who are not in the know, but, the stuff that comes out here is necessary for the future. It was short and as I said before, kind of a dream sequence for Aragorn. The problem I have most with Arwen is that they turned her into a warrior and gave her the job of saving Frodo in the first film. That I felt was too much!

Actually, I didn't have any problem with Arwen in FOTR. I understood that by using her in that role they thereby simultaneously eliminated the otherwise extraneous character of Glorfindel and gave an actual role to a female character. One of the few flaws of Tolkien is that, with the exception of Eowyn, his female characters are virtually all given the off-stage role of handwringing and tending the hearth while the men do all the glamorous rough stuff. That was liable to prove a tough sell to a modern audience and was addressed quite neatly (I thought) with the relatively minor expansion of Arwen's character.

Regarding the trees, maybe they'll show up on the "expanded" DVD version which will no doubt be released in a year or so.

Here is a fascinating article on how the Smeagol character was created.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1218/p01s01-almo.html

Oh, I forgot--


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I just got back from seeing the film. Truly monumental filmmaking and I think it's important to realize that Jackson had some crucial decision to make in bringing his version to the screen. The Arwen thread running through the first two parts covered a lot of material in the book about what was happening with the elves and their relationship with the world of men. Well, there's that word -- men.
Glorifindel was hardly a strong character in the narrative, so you ended up with only Galadriel in the first part and Eowyn in the second part. I think Jackson made the right decision for a film - bringing the female elf character out of the background in the appendices and using that character to tell part of the story. I don't want to get tied down to the "what would Tolkien think" school as he, after all, sold the rights to the book for a film many years ago. If alive, I would be happy if I were him that a movie maker like Jackson who obviously is in love with the material brought it to the screen with such effectiveness. He handled the multiple plots with an expertise I've never seen in any film -- it flowed like water (and plenty of water in that spectacular dam breaking sequence at the end!)

The Fanghorn forest is important in the film but I can see why the particular creatures that showed up in the book were left out. It didn't matter to me -- I liked the dramatic effect of having the Riders and Gandalf arrive at sunrise as promised and attacking from the rear when all seemed lost (even with the inevitable comparison to the calvary has arrived!) I would haved like to have seen perhaps more magical stuff going on, showing off Gandalf's new powers other than making the Riders virtually invincible. That was lost a bit in the shuffle but I'm going to have to see it again to absorb more of that aspect. This film is going to need that extra 30 minutes in an extended version more thant the first film even though it's quite satisfying as it is.

I wasn't as anxious to go back and see FOTR again as much as I'm anxious to see this film again. The scale is really pretty overwhelming.
It did elicit genuine emotion for the plight of the characters and I hate to focus now on one of my favorite parts of the films because it is that necessary bit of comic relief but the audience I was in laughed on cue. Gimli ending up behind a wall where he couldn't see a thing and saying, "You could have picked a better spot!"

Anyway, with the third part of the film, it will be the benchmark for any fantasy film to aspire to and likely any epic film. It had that feeling that this was actual history just like the book. I kept wondering where the elves ended up on this planet and what mythology picks up where LOTR leaves off.