Two Towers - SPOILERS! WARNING! - by Brad on 17:10 18 Dec 2002
Be warned. This will contain spoilers. If you have not seen the move then read no further. There is also a seperate No Spoilers thread for those that have not seen it.
I'll post more later. Mainly I wanted to get this thread started. So that as people see the film there is some place to talk about spolier stuff.
Feel free to post spoilers in this thread alone.
Let me say right off, that in this post and in future posts I might sound like I do not like the film. Nothing can be further from the truth. I will probably nitpick on it for the sake of discussion but I loved the film. I can see what Jackson meant when he said they wanted to be true to the story Tolkien was trying to convey even if they had to depart from the books a bit for the sake of the movie. All in all, they did a fine job.
First spoiler - the elves from Lorien showing up at Helms Deep. I can accept it as part of the movie and it was well done. I felt a little slighted that the humans could not pull it off alone. But heck, it looked cool and it worked.
Observation - LOL Aragorn manages to be everywhere at once!
At least it seems that way.
The whole Ent Moot thing was disappointing. And I thought Treebeards' conversion sort of after thoughty. (Been awhile since I read the books so I do not remember exactly how that part comes about. The Ent battle at Isenguard was cool.
Gollum - they did an amazing job on Gollum. I'm not talking about the special effects, but the Gollum acting is truely excellent. They really made the character come to life and explained motive and reasoning quite well for this very complex character. Of all the characters Gollum might well be the closest to what Tolkien intended.
Gimli - They sort of took a page right out of John Ford's directing manual and played the Gimli character for some light hearted quips and mild comic relief. I'm not sure if I like it, but it seemed effective. I guess everyone cannot be dower all the time. Something else from John Ford: Ford always paid attention to the middle cast in casting all his movies - the stars of a movie were set, but the middle cast (the supporting actors) are what made or broke a movie with depth. Jackson did very well with his supporting actors. You really appreciate that the guys playing Legolas, Gimli, Merry Pippen, Sam and Saruman can really act well in the roles.
Battle of Helm Deep really rocks!
Enough for now. Chime in to make your own observations or to agree or disagree with me.
Be warned. This will contain spoilers. If you have not seen the move then read no further. There is also a seperate No Spoilers thread for those that have not seen it.
I'll post more later. Mainly I wanted to get this thread started. So that as people see the film there is some place to talk about spolier stuff.
Feel free to post spoilers in this thread alone.
Let me say right off, that in this post and in future posts I might sound like I do not like the film. Nothing can be further from the truth. I will probably nitpick on it for the sake of discussion but I loved the film. I can see what Jackson meant when he said they wanted to be true to the story Tolkien was trying to convey even if they had to depart from the books a bit for the sake of the movie. All in all, they did a fine job.
First spoiler - the elves from Lorien showing up at Helms Deep. I can accept it as part of the movie and it was well done. I felt a little slighted that the humans could not pull it off alone. But heck, it looked cool and it worked.
Observation - LOL Aragorn manages to be everywhere at once!
At least it seems that way. The whole Ent Moot thing was disappointing. And I thought Treebeards' conversion sort of after thoughty. (Been awhile since I read the books so I do not remember exactly how that part comes about. The Ent battle at Isenguard was cool.
Gollum - they did an amazing job on Gollum. I'm not talking about the special effects, but the Gollum acting is truely excellent. They really made the character come to life and explained motive and reasoning quite well for this very complex character. Of all the characters Gollum might well be the closest to what Tolkien intended.
Gimli - They sort of took a page right out of John Ford's directing manual and played the Gimli character for some light hearted quips and mild comic relief. I'm not sure if I like it, but it seemed effective. I guess everyone cannot be dower all the time. Something else from John Ford: Ford always paid attention to the middle cast in casting all his movies - the stars of a movie were set, but the middle cast (the supporting actors) are what made or broke a movie with depth. Jackson did very well with his supporting actors. You really appreciate that the guys playing Legolas, Gimli, Merry Pippen, Sam and Saruman can really act well in the roles.
Battle of Helm Deep really rocks!
Enough for now. Chime in to make your own observations or to agree or disagree with me.
Two Towers - SPOILERS! WARNING! - by Haruchai on 19:02 18 Dec 2002
I honestly have not read what you written yet, but I have tickets for 10:45 CST.... only 5 more hours!!
Great movie! EvilLuke and I went and saw it, and both agreed that we'd see it again in a heartbeat.
Gollum was great.
The battle scenes were well done.
The Ents, especially their attack on Saruman, were awesome.
Fabulous movie! I highly recommend it!
I honestly have not read what you written yet, but I have tickets for 10:45 CST.... only 5 more hours!!
Great movie! EvilLuke and I went and saw it, and both agreed that we'd see it again in a heartbeat.
Gollum was great.
The battle scenes were well done.
The Ents, especially their attack on Saruman, were awesome.
Fabulous movie! I highly recommend it!
Two Towers - SPOILERS! WARNING! - by Arislyn on 17:01 19 Dec 2002
I went to see it last night, as well. Overall, it was a fabulous film. Gollum was wonderful, the battle scenes were to die for (Hah!), and just the overall level of quality was overwhelmingly great.
Except for 2, tiny things that annoyed me to no end.
1. Gimli, in my opinion, was reduced to comic relief. I agree with Brad that no one is dour all the time. I'm not protesting the addition of humor. What I am disappointed with is the level of the humor. Too much of it was almost slap-stick in it's feel. It just seemed to detract from the character.
2. Legolas and his shield surfing. Yeesh. Why, oh why, did he do that? It was nothing more than a nod towards the youngsters who like to see the Tony Hawk kind of cool skateboarding stunts. That just went way over the line of what is acceptable in an epic fantasy film of this quality.
But, those are really very minor points. Overall, it was great and I would definitely go see it again.
I went to see it last night, as well. Overall, it was a fabulous film. Gollum was wonderful, the battle scenes were to die for (Hah!), and just the overall level of quality was overwhelmingly great.
Except for 2, tiny things that annoyed me to no end.
1. Gimli, in my opinion, was reduced to comic relief. I agree with Brad that no one is dour all the time. I'm not protesting the addition of humor. What I am disappointed with is the level of the humor. Too much of it was almost slap-stick in it's feel. It just seemed to detract from the character.
2. Legolas and his shield surfing. Yeesh. Why, oh why, did he do that? It was nothing more than a nod towards the youngsters who like to see the Tony Hawk kind of cool skateboarding stunts. That just went way over the line of what is acceptable in an epic fantasy film of this quality.
But, those are really very minor points. Overall, it was great and I would definitely go see it again.
Two Towers - SPOILERS! WARNING! - by Brad on 17:14 19 Dec 2002
Yeah Gimli as comic relief made me uncomfortable. I'm still sorting out my feelings on that. It almost went over the top.
The Skateboarding elf was over the top, fortunately it only lasted about 20 seconds.
I thought the Ents were well portrayed. Now in the books didn't the ents also save Helm's Deep?
Does anybody know someone that has not read the books but saw the movie? I am interested in what they thought.
Yeah Gimli as comic relief made me uncomfortable. I'm still sorting out my feelings on that. It almost went over the top.
The Skateboarding elf was over the top, fortunately it only lasted about 20 seconds.
I thought the Ents were well portrayed. Now in the books didn't the ents also save Helm's Deep?
Does anybody know someone that has not read the books but saw the movie? I am interested in what they thought.
Two Towers - SPOILERS! WARNING! - by Kainja on 12:54 22 Dec 2002
I agree about the "shield surfing," though I laughed with my 15 year old son when it happened on screen. but it was just rather silly. Although I absolutely hate the "comic relief" character that everyone seems to think has to be in fantasy films, for some reason the Dwarf's comic statements generally seemed to work for me. I thought it skated the edge pretty well. I don't think most of it was truly necessary but it the comic relief character seems such a fixture in Hollywood these days.
Overall I liked the movie a lot. The ents certainly were cool. I liked seeing the fight between Gandalf and the demon. Enjoyed the battle at Helm's deep. Good film. Not great, but good.
I agree about the "shield surfing," though I laughed with my 15 year old son when it happened on screen. but it was just rather silly. Although I absolutely hate the "comic relief" character that everyone seems to think has to be in fantasy films, for some reason the Dwarf's comic statements generally seemed to work for me. I thought it skated the edge pretty well. I don't think most of it was truly necessary but it the comic relief character seems such a fixture in Hollywood these days.
Overall I liked the movie a lot. The ents certainly were cool. I liked seeing the fight between Gandalf and the demon. Enjoyed the battle at Helm's deep. Good film. Not great, but good.
Two Towers - SPOILERS! WARNING! - by Brad on 16:13 22 Dec 2002
The trick I had to cope with was accepting the movies on their own terms. It is tough for me to do that because the books mean a lot to me.
The movies just cannot be a word for word copy of the books so they have to stand on their own and be watchable by folks that have never read the books and maybe are not fantasy fans either. That is a tricky thing to do in 9 hours.
The trick I had to cope with was accepting the movies on their own terms. It is tough for me to do that because the books mean a lot to me.
The movies just cannot be a word for word copy of the books so they have to stand on their own and be watchable by folks that have never read the books and maybe are not fantasy fans either. That is a tricky thing to do in 9 hours.
Two Towers - SPOILERS! WARNING! - by Arislyn on 19:01 25 Dec 2003
Well, because of everyone's schedule in my family, Runt and I are not actually "doing" Christmas until after the holiday. Runt is at work and I'm home...which means I've been snuggled in watching TV. We got the extended version of Two Towers but I haven't finished watching it yet because I do want to share the experience of all the new scenes with the hubby. It's much more fun if neither of us have seen it. But, we watched part of it before he left for work.
One of the new scenes that they have added that I've truly enjoyed so far is one that depicts a bit more of the relationship between Faramir, Boromir and their father (whose name I just don't recall. Deonath? De..something or the other.) It happens when Faramir tells Frodo of Boromir's death and demands to know if the hobbit knows anymore than he does. Faramir flashes back to a memory of celebrating with Boromir after a great victory and you see the way they loved one another. You also get to see Boromir stick up for Faramir when their father blatantly dismisses his second son as being a "blemish" upon the family's reputation and honor.
I guess I appreciated that scene so much because, even though I know that Boromir wasn't a bad guy at all...he simply succumbed to the greater will and evil that was the Ring...I never had a good feeling about Boromir. Certainly, his self-sacrifice at the end to try and save Merry and Pippin did much to redeem him in my eyes, it was still a bit late to really pull him back into the light for me.
I guess I didn't like Boromir because, from the very point when you first met him at Elrond's council, Boromir came across as a somewhat bitter and arrogant individual. Not surprising considering that Gondor had held the gates for so long and yet there seemed to be little recognition for that feat. After that, we got to see him slowly give in to the desire to have the ring without prior knowledge of his character. So, you didn't see him as a laughing and loving brother.
Now, that's not to say that he came across badly at the Council. I mean, Boromir was simply a man concerned for his people. He wanted them to survive. He wanted them to be happy, healthy and safe. In that sense, he was a compassionate man...but...I don't know. It's hard for me to put my finger on it. He lacked....warmth? And that is what the deleted scenes with Faramir gave back to him. It gave back the warmth. It made me feel more for him and truly appreciate what happened to him at the end of Fellowship.
Also, it puts a slightly new light upon what happens in RotK, but I'll not talk about that here.
Well, because of everyone's schedule in my family, Runt and I are not actually "doing" Christmas until after the holiday. Runt is at work and I'm home...which means I've been snuggled in watching TV. We got the extended version of Two Towers but I haven't finished watching it yet because I do want to share the experience of all the new scenes with the hubby. It's much more fun if neither of us have seen it. But, we watched part of it before he left for work.
One of the new scenes that they have added that I've truly enjoyed so far is one that depicts a bit more of the relationship between Faramir, Boromir and their father (whose name I just don't recall. Deonath? De..something or the other.) It happens when Faramir tells Frodo of Boromir's death and demands to know if the hobbit knows anymore than he does. Faramir flashes back to a memory of celebrating with Boromir after a great victory and you see the way they loved one another. You also get to see Boromir stick up for Faramir when their father blatantly dismisses his second son as being a "blemish" upon the family's reputation and honor.
I guess I appreciated that scene so much because, even though I know that Boromir wasn't a bad guy at all...he simply succumbed to the greater will and evil that was the Ring...I never had a good feeling about Boromir. Certainly, his self-sacrifice at the end to try and save Merry and Pippin did much to redeem him in my eyes, it was still a bit late to really pull him back into the light for me.
I guess I didn't like Boromir because, from the very point when you first met him at Elrond's council, Boromir came across as a somewhat bitter and arrogant individual. Not surprising considering that Gondor had held the gates for so long and yet there seemed to be little recognition for that feat. After that, we got to see him slowly give in to the desire to have the ring without prior knowledge of his character. So, you didn't see him as a laughing and loving brother.
Now, that's not to say that he came across badly at the Council. I mean, Boromir was simply a man concerned for his people. He wanted them to survive. He wanted them to be happy, healthy and safe. In that sense, he was a compassionate man...but...I don't know. It's hard for me to put my finger on it. He lacked....warmth? And that is what the deleted scenes with Faramir gave back to him. It gave back the warmth. It made me feel more for him and truly appreciate what happened to him at the end of Fellowship.
Also, it puts a slightly new light upon what happens in RotK, but I'll not talk about that here.