The Two Towers is great

[SpongeBobTheDestoyer]

Go see it! It's just as good or better than the first.

[Kinslayer]

Yeah, for me Gollum just made the film!

[Ronn_Bman]

It was fun-tastic!

[Daniel]

Yep I have to admit I enjoyed it more than the first film. Im so glad that they kept one of my favourite moments in the film

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Legolas and Gimli's orc slaying competition at Helms Deep

[SpiritWarrior]

Just saw it - absolutely awesome movie!!
Better than the first installment I thought, the story ran so smoothly, the CGI effects were flawless (and i'm a born critic for this), the depth/camera-work of the overall scenery and landscapes reflected with justice, the sheer volume of Tolkiens' original descriptions. Definetly the best film i've seen in a long long time.

[Lady Blue03]

<font color=pink>ya, daniel, that was one of my favorite parts in the book and also the film [img]smile.gif[/img]

The movie was great. Cried 2 times! Battle scenes were awesome. Am seeing it again </font>

[Horatio]

I saw the film Friday night with some friends. It was totally brilliant. Better than the Fellowship (while excellent in its own way, I felt that the first really just set the scene). An unexpected amount of comedy was welcomed with open arms, as was Gollum.

SLIGHT SPOILER
However, I really did begin to despise Frodo. During the battle of Helm's Deep, the action was totally ripe. The audience was totally captivated, and nearly everyone was sitting forward in their chairs. Aragorn slices his way through an army of orcs, Legolas uses a metal sheet to skate down some stairs, and Gimli is counting the kills. THen it switches to Frodo and Sam walking through a city, and you could hear the sighs of frustration in the room and the sound of 60 people settling back into their chairs. It then struck me that Frodo is a pansy . In the Fellowship, on Weathertop (s/p?) when the Nazgul are attacking, Sam goes forwards and gets sliced away. Then Merry and Pippin step together, and are each put to one side. the Nazgul gets to Frodo, and he doesn't even ready himself. He falls backwards and then goes invisible. Now, I know that its not every day that you get confronted by some dude with a REALLY bad throat problem and a fetish for black, but still, it left me with the impression that yes, while the putting-on of the ring HAD to be worked in there somewhere, Frodo could have done more.

[Rimjaw]

*SPOILERS*

Caught it on Friday, one of the best films of the year although some serious flaws bring it down a bit. At three hours long, the plot still ends short of the actual novel. By the end of the movie Merry and Pippin still haven’t been reunited with the rest of the gang, Gandalf still hasn’t confronted Saruman and Frodo still hasn’t gotten himself captured by Shelob yet. It’s going to be awfully crammed in Return of the King. Despite the lengthy duration already, considerable time is wasted on documentary-style panning landscape shots of the New Zealand scenery as well as melodramatics between Frodo and Sam.

With the exception of Aragorn, there’s also a lot less characterization in this installment. Although Legolas gets the best action sequences, by the end of the movie you still haven’t really learnt anything new about his character. Gimli is comic relief. Period.

The movie more or less revolves around The battle at Helms Deep and the movie is has a lot more action than FotR. Lines appear to be rushed in order to go to the next scene. And although Mortenson, Bloom and Davies do an convincing job of acting out their parts (Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli) convincingly, the camaraderie between these three seemed forced at times. The action scenes and the battle were very entertaining except for some cheesy moments such as the ‘snowboarding’ scene, the Olympics parody and the dwarf tossing (Guess who). And it was a bit hard to believe that Aragorn and Gimli could single-handedly hold of the entire army to buy time for Theoden’s men to repair the gate.

Peter Jackson also takes PLENTY of liberty with the novel as compared to the previous installment. Some of the new changes pay off and some don’t.

Arwen/Aragorn: OK, I know a lot of people are complaining about this but I felt it gave the character of Aragorn some depth and made the Aragorn/Arwen/Eowyn love triangle more convincing.

Ents: In the movie the Ents initially decide not to attack Isengard as they do not wish the upset the natural order of things but change their mind after Merry shows them the damage Saruman has done to the local fauna. Had they stuck with the book, which had the Ents decide to attack Isengard straight away, valuable screen time could have been saved.

Faramir: He was one of my favorite characters in the book. Having him be seduced by the ring (like Boromir) and capturing Frodo completely deviated by his character in the book. In fact, his action are more debased than Boromir. I recall him saying something like “Time for Faramir the Captain to prove his quality.” when finding about the ring and deciding to keep Frodo and Sam as prisoners. Which translates to the fact that he’s thinking about himself, at least Boromir had the survival of Gondor at heart. He then takes the duo to Osgiliath in a scene which serves no purpose.

Galadriel: Why is she even in here?!

Gollum: Giving the former hobbit a dual personality disorder was brilliant. Gollum stole the show here.

Elves showing up at Helms Deep: What a waste of elves…and screen time. This totally undermines the efforts of the Rohirrim. And Haldir got the axe (literally).

Frodo vs the Nazgul: I don’t get the added scene with Frodo getting seen by the dragonriding Ringwraith near the end. The idea to sneak into Mordor while Sauron suspected them of taking the Ring to Minas Tirith instead. Wouldn’t Sauron be a bit suspicious of Frodo hanging just outside his border?

Shelob: Adding the Shelob cliffhanger ending would have been a nice touch. But I forgive them.

Bottom line: A must see. But be aware of the flaws.

[ 12-21-2002, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: Rimjaw ]

[Draten-Master of Fire and Ice]

********************
**Spoilers in post**
********************

Can understand, Horatio, why you see Frodo as a pansy...we shall see. Frodo has a lot on his plate, after all, for a hobbit who has never before left the Shire and also do not fail to appreciate how little a hobbit (even Bullroarer Took) can do against a man...or especially five ringwraiths; give him a break: he does, after all, save ME in the end (I don't think a pansy would have gone all the way to the cracks of doom).

I thought that it was cool that Aragorn and Gimli had some heriocs before the gates. (although in the book Eomer was there also) It helps us appreciate the fact that the Fellowship is not a bunch of rookies: they ARE heroes.

Have to agree, Rimjaw, about Arwen and Aragorn and the "love triangle" good point. Had they stuck with the book it would have taken a long time for the Ents to make up their minds, however, as the Entmoot took a long time and Merry and Pippin had to hang out at Quickbeam's crib for like a couple of days.

Must disagree about Faramir; totally butchered the character, they did. Faramir is NOT Boromir and I thought it sucked that they had Frodo and Sam going to Osgiliath (never happened) and confronting a Winged Nazgul??? Although doubtless they will use this confrontation in RoTK as the reason why Sauron hastily attacks Minas Tirith (He thinks the Ring is there).

I think they got the idea of elves at Helm's Deep from the animated version of LoTR that came out some time ago; it never happened but I'm willing to live with it.

Liked everything about Gollum...fantastic job.

Thought the portrayed Gimli as a little less tough than dwarves merit: they are mean SOB's!

Loved the movie though!!!!!

[Larry_OHF]

<font color=skyblue>Concerning what was said above...(some spoilers about movie and Tolkien books...non-canonical...

Galadriel's involvement: Her part in this story was not found in the second book, but is found in Book of Lost Tales, Volume 2, I believe. Peter Jackson added some stuff from other notes and unfinished works of Tolkien...For example: I am told that the ruins of the tower that the 3 elven rings were made in can even be seen if you know what to look for when they show some land footage of Mordor...since the tower was right there somewhere nearby. A Tolkien worshipper here at work told me that he saw the ruins of the tower there just as Tokien described it in one of his other books...but I learned this after I saw the movie, so I did not see it with mine own eyes. Stuff like that. Also, when Arwen looks back at her dad and he has that distressed look...that is because she told him with that mere glance that she was not going overseas. One of the extra books tell that Elrond had actually sent Arwen to Lothlorien on purpose. Well...either way...that is where she's headed. What I am scared shitless about is that I hear through the grapevine that the third movie will end with the ring being destroyed...but no marriage will take place! WTF????? I hope that is not true. They have to finish the romance sequence! It's the most important part! It was cool how they showed Arwen's vision of the future...in the appendix...that is the single most sad thing I have ever read.

Gimli: I liked his humorous part, especially when just before Aragorn throws him over to the bridge into sure death...He says, "Just don't tell the Elf!"...because his pride is always there. That was about as good as "No elf is going to outdo me! 4, 5, 6", (and you see the camera zoom out and over the battle cries you continue to hear..."7!, 8!..." </font>

[ 12-23-2002, 04:41 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]