What people think of Two Towers (*SPOILERS*)

[Entlover]

Hey, nobody told me Gollum is cute! I have to agree with Frodo, I felt sorry for him, except when he was plotting to murder the hobbits.

Legolas' skateboarding stunt - cool, but pretty unrealistic. Too risky.

Theoden being possessed by Saruman -- I thought it unnecessary, but it just made more concrete the "influence" of Saruman through Grima over him in the book. I notice that PJ tends to take subtleties and make them explicit, which perhaps is the only way to deal with the transition from book to movie.

I don't think Faramir was mean. He was only acting in Gondor's best interests. Anyone would have done the same. It just took longer in the movie for him to catch on to what he ought to do, and to trust Frodo. Though why anyone should trust someone whose eyes keep rolling up while he goes sleepwalking into danger, I don't know. I still love Elijah's acting, but that part was a little much.

[Lizra]

Celebriel, You didn't like the debate! I loved it! Split personality, perfect! I guess they'll show the "murder scene" in the extended edition. They made real people look pretty awful, and distorted with the orcs, I think it could have been done with Gollum too. But, I'm sure they had their reasons for going the route they did. It was very good, but I liked the lines Gollum had, more than the way he looked. I think seening the Smeagol, Deagol bit in the boat will help me though!

[claudia silver]

I intially posted:

Hmmmmmmmm..........not sure.......need to see it again

Just seen TT for the second time and have moved from a 'not sure' to 'loved it'. After seeing FOTR for the first time I felt exactly the same, unsure, but again revised my opinion after seeing it............a ridiculous amount of times!

I think my problem is that I, as everyone who has read and re-read the book, have my own preconceived ideas and expectations of how I want it to be. So on first viewing you hold your breath waiting for a favourite line or a scene and feel cheated when it never comes or is changed out of all recognition. But then after getting my head round my initial disappointments I find I can enjoy the second, third etc viewings of what is a superb interpretation of the LOTR and go back to the book for my 'missing bits'.

Don’t get me wrong I still have major problems in the TT with Theoden's exorcism and 'side-kick' Gimli and no Glorfindel in LOTR but I have a forgiving nature.

However that does not extend to people who laugh at, what I think are, inappropriate moments in the film! During the Gollum/Smeagol argument people were roaring with laughter. I must be lacking in the sense of humour department but I think this one of the most tragic and moving moments in the book (oops.....sorry film). And in the FOTR when Frodo slips on the ring to escape from Boromir and delivers him an invisible kick, same reaction..........I am sorry but I just don’t get it. Maybe I need to lighten up a bit.............

[Arathorn]

In the place I was in, people kept laughing at almost every other intense conversation between male folk (Haldir & Aragorn, Legolas & Aragorn, Frodo & Sam when Sam said "It's me, your Sam") like it was some gay innuendo. I tell you, it was so irritating.

[claudia silver]

Oh dear........its all very sad

[Arathorn]

After reading countless reviews here and in other sites, I think I'm enjoying PJ's changes and the reactions of many folk. It makes us all talk and debate with each other. It's not so badly done that everyone's on one side crucifying PJ but it's not too close to being book-verbatim that we're all agreeing either that it gets boring.

I'm a bit excited with what other changes, mistakes, and intentional surprises will be in store as people view TTT for the nth time. The same goes for next years Return of the King.

[azalea]

Yeah, seeing it in a packed theater with people just there because it was something to do (rather than really having an interest in seeing it) is really annoying. People were talking, eating smelly nachos (*crunch, crunch*), RUBBING EACH OTHER'S BACKS! I can't wait to see it in a month or two on the "off" hours. I did that w/ FotR and it was practically a private showing, as there were only 8 or 9 other people in the theater.

Yeah, an actual person playing Gollum would have been nice, but considering how skinny they'd need to be, I don't think it would work.

[Celebréiel]

Thats what happend to me! The crowd at the midnight show was so rowdy, and this guy next to me was drinking beers! >.< Every hour he'd pop open another can! But anywho, Lizra, yeah after seeing it another time(w/ out the laughter) the gollum debate was pretty good And more high points im noticing, (its slowly winning me over) even though he didnt have a big part, I really liked the actor playing Eomer!! And Eowyn was great.
~Celebréiel

[BeardofPants]

Originally posted by Dunadan
Aragorn using the Palantir to bluff Sauron into attacking too soon, etc.

May not need to do that, since Frodo was spotted at Osgilliath in the company of Gondorians....



I don't have a problem with people laughing at Gollum; his character in the book was laughably pitiful as well --- remember when he pranced around like an over-excited puppy? I don't think Tolkien treated him entirely seriously either.

[Arathorn]

Originally posted by azalea
People were talking, eating smelly nachos (*crunch, crunch*), RUBBING EACH OTHER'S BACKS!

They kinda remind me of some of our congressmen here. Dumb orcses!

[Rûdhaglarien]

The movie was fantastic for what it was (a movie), but (I believe) that it sucked as an adaptation of the book.

Things that I hated about it: Treebeard, Faramir, Helm's Deep.

Thing that I enjoyed: Gollum, the Eye's upgrade.

[mithrand1r]

I saw T2T today. It is very good on the whole. Reviewed with the book in mind, I would say 8¾ to 9 of 10, otherwise 9½ of 10.

Here are some random thoughts about the film.

New Zealand is beautiful.

The battle scenes were very intense and sometimes difficult (for me) to follow all of the action.

The movie followed the book less than it did in LOTR:FOTR. In some cases this was good for moving the story along and in other cases not.

I glad the film did not do a synopsis (sp?) of what transpired upto that point. The movie is long enough already.

The movie showed everything primarily in chronological order. While this may have the effect of forcing people to keep track of different story lines, I think it is better (from a cinematic perspective) to keep a nicely flowing story.

The battle scene between Gandalf and the Balrog was well done and it kept very closely (in spirit) with the book.

I did not like the way that Golem looked, but I thought he was well portrayed. There was a scene that was excellent in protraying Golem's inner struggle between "good" and "evil". At times, I found Golem to be very funny (from a combo of facial expressions and funny dialog).

Merry and Pippen were portrayed in more somber tones than the last film. I think this is primarily a result of them being isolated from everyone else and having to depend on their own ability/luck to get out of their troubles. It is a shame that much of their witty comments had to be removed, due to the streamlining of the story. Too bad PJ & Co could not find the right balance between comedy and seriousness.

Did Grima Wormtongue have to look so disgusting/ugly. Why not put a sign around his neck saying "Traitor" or maybe give him a "black hat".

When Grima was kick out of the hall, they should have explained how he was able to ride out on a horse. In the book, the king gave him a horse and order all to let him go without any obstacles where ever he chooses to go. Without this explaination it looks like the King's guards are dozing on the job at best.

There was no mention of Elven Cloaks from Lothlorien (if there was a mention of them in the previous film, I do not remember it). When Frodo and Sam hide in front of the Black Gate, it seems improbable that the enemy would miss seeing them. (they notice the rocks and dust go down the side of the hill, but fail to see the cloaks when they stop to investigate?) If we knew about the cloaks this wouldn't be as bad. It would have been better to not have this happen at all, since this doesn't really add much to the film.

The Flashback scenes with awren/Aragorn/Elrond were annoying. This was primarily due to my reading of the book. W/out the book, Elrond sounds like the Elves should just up and leave everyone else in the lurch.

When they are retreating from the Golden Hall to Helms Deep, I get the impression that Aragorn thinks that Awren will leave him for the Grey Havens.

The elves with lanterns@Rivendell remind me of Druids.

Sauraman's talk to the orcs before battle reminded me of a pep talk.

The Orcs during the battle reminded me of Chewbaca at times.

The one orc running with the lit torch to light the bombs reminded me of the Olympics.

I liked how the ents looked. They seemed to be inconsistent though. In one scene you see Treebeard say that ents are not hasty. When treebeard sees the forest in ruins, he changes his mind about remaining out of the war of the ring. He decides then and there that Sauraman must pay. He hollers and you then see a bunch of ents ready to fight against Saruman. It would have been better if Peter&Company kept to the book and had the Ents end their debate agreeing to help merry&pippin against Saruman.

When Eomer & Gandalf ride to the rescue, there were orcs with pikes present. My question is: Wouldn't the horses be impailed against the pikes, before the men can reach the orcs?

The Chase of the orcs by Aragorn, Legolas and Glimli went well for the most part. It was nicely streamlined.

Eowyn (sp?) was well protrayed.

I did not care much for the tearful goodbye with the mother/kids. It was so-so, but to me seemed to be there to get the tissues out. It was not bad per say, but it seemed a little out of place to me.

Gimli seems to have taken more of the comedic lines in this film. The "Dwarf throwing" seems that it may be a running gag through all three films.

Aragorn did not quite seem sure of what he wanted to do at times. Towards the end of the film he seems to have found his direction and is more focused.

Again, I think the film is very good. There are 2 or 3 items that should have been written/shown better. Most of the things that I did not like about were of a subjective nature and not material to the telling of the story.

Sincerely,
Anthony

[Dunadan]

Originally posted by Arathorn
It makes us all talk and debate with each other. It's not so badly done that everyone's on one side crucifying PJ but it's not too close to being book-verbatim that we're all agreeing either that it gets boring.

Good point, well put. It really is a tremendous achievement.

I liked the comedy Gimli; I thought that John Rhys Davies' delivery was spot on. You might slag him off (and it seems realistic that warriors would have a pretty robust humour) but you'd want him on your side... However, I thought that much of the script was pretty weak.

[squinteyedsoutherner]

I was going to post my thoughts, but I think I'll just add my name to your post Mithrand1r, I agree with everything you've outlined.

One thing not mentioned too much so far were the poor effects. I thought some things looked fantatsic, but many things looked very hack to me. I did not like Gollum the fetus, I wanted Gollum the amphibian, and while I can marvel at the fact that what I'm seeing is not really there, it still looked unreal to me.

The hobbits on Treebeard looked terrible and they just kept showing it!

There is a scene where Sam and Frodo are standing with the men from Gondor and the projection (same used for Isildur in the extended) looks terrible.

The wargs looked very fake in some scenes. The long slow walk to Helm's Deep was a perfect moment for a song, or for one character to tell a tale to another. Perhaps Helm the Hammerhand or the Gondor Rohan relationship, hell, anything!

Isengard lost it's perspective when the water came, and I felt I was looking at a model train set toward the end. They overused the shot.

Some of the orcs are getting way to close to B-movie horror for my liking.



A note on military tactics to Peter:

The worst place to put the elves was inside the wall with the others, had they waited over the hillside (where Gandalf entered), they could have slaughtered the orcs from above with arrows. Forcing the orcs to fight upwards on two fronts would have made their excess numbers almost meaningless. Tolkien had much first hand military experience, and his battles reflect his knowledge. The Pikes mentioned above is another great example. Pikes were formidable weapons against a mounted assault, those horses would have died (if their riders could have ever gotten them to even perform the manouver at all, given that horses posess a keen sense of self preservation even in battle). Again, needless changes creating problems Tolkien so effortlessly avoided.

The worst moment:

Gandalf rearing on Shadowfax just as Aragorn looks for him. Someone should Pike Jackson for that cliche.

Finally:


Although I liked parts of this film a lot, I would rather have Cate Blanchett reading the novel than all three movies on dvd.

[Randy6]

I've seen it twice so far and I love it! I can't wait to see ROTK! Yes, there are changes, sure, some people will be disapointed, but be aware that whenever two people witness events they both see them slightly differently. That's how I view changes in a movie from a book. Some of the changes I liked, especially with the elves helping the humans. Although I do believe that most of the major points of the story were hit and not majorly changed.

The Ents were truly marvelous! The dead marshes were fantastic! Brad Dourf was absolutely the PERFECT choice for Wormtongue. The beginning was amazing; that was something I was unable to visualize myself and always wanted to.

Blessings,
Randy

[Blackboar]

I liked the film!!

I agree with you about some things but I thought the hobbits on Treebeard looked quite good!!

I love the way they started it with Gandalf falling into the shadow in Moria in Fodo's dream!

I was really shocked when Frodo was trying to kill Sam!!
You could hear my heart pumping for miles!!!

I thought the battle was done really well; except Legolas on a skateboard!! Not very middle-earthy to me

[eowyngirl14]

Originally posted by Blackboar

I thought the battle was done really well; except Legolas on a skateboard!! Not very middle-earthy to me

I agree with you about the Legolas skateboarding thing. All of my friends who are Legolas friends just about died when the showed that scene. I think it was put there solely for entertainment purposes, and it worked. But did anyone else notice how at first they showed him sliding halfway down the stairs, and then they changed angles and filmed him sliding from 1/4 to 3/4 way down the stairs, and then finally down the second half? They made it look like he shot about five arrows, when he really only shot two or three!

[durin's bane]

Originally posted by eowyngirl14
What would be even funnier would be if oen of the pidgeons pooped on the statue, or on Arwen for that matter.

LoL, that would've been hilarious, Eowyngirl! I'd have peed my pants!

[Renille]

Originally posted by claudia silver
I intially posted:
However that does not extend to people who laugh at, what I think are, inappropriate moments in the film! During the Gollum/Smeagol argument people were roaring with laughter. I must be lacking in the sense of humour department but I think this one of the most tragic and moving moments in the book (oops.....sorry film)

YES! My thoughts exactly! That was the one part where I felt like hugging poor Smeagol, and everyone else was laughing. I did giggle a bit at the "We told to go, and he goes!" line, *which I just murdered* but that was because I was happy for Gollum. You could actually see his remorse and happiness and good intent. But people were laughing. It was very annoying.

I think I will go see it again with my Christmas money. Maybe I'd be willing to see past what I thought was an inordinate amount of senseless violence. And maybe I'll have the sense to NOT get soda so I don't have to leave the theatre twice.

[Diaxion]

The thing that disapointed me most was where the movie ended. It did not end where the book ended.