i Didn't like it when Arwen got frodo away from the ring wrath. But i do liked the dialog of arwen and alrond, and the dreams of Aragorn. When i read the books i wasn't aware of the relationship of Arwen and Aragorn. I thought that Aragorn and Eowen would get a relationship. but after i read the parts after the books understood the relationship of arwen and Aragorn, and i liked the story of those 2 alot.
Just came back from seeing this movie. Wow. Great movie. Probably as good as Fellowship, but I'll see it a few more times before I make up my mind.
Wow...What an awesome movie! This has inspired me to start reading "Two Towers." Just a GREAT story...and the battle scene was amazing! The whole thing!
Just came back. Was confusing at first, since I hadn't seen the first one, but for a newcomer with no idea of what was goin on, I caught on slowly. Loved Gollum and his split personalities, loved the hardcore Aragorn character. I thought Frodo was a bit on the soft side though, with Sam having to always defend him. And yeaaa, Sam and Frodo looked like they'd go at it any moment. I could barely here the tree though, so that was a small dislike. The scene's of battle were excellent. Overall it was a good movie and hopefully after watching part 1 and then re watching this, I can fully understand and appreciate this movie.
You might find yourself saying as you read, "Damn, why wasn't this in the book?" And so forth. Or, "Why'd they change this?" All in all, the movie was awesome. Enjoy the book, though.
Definitely read the books...you might get irritated at what they left out of the movies, but the books are classic works of art for fantasy fans. Question for me so far (I havent made it to the movie yet) Why in the hell did they have Faramir take S & F to Gondor? I know that the Law of Gondor says that all men traveling thru their realm must have the permission of the king...but in the book Faramir makes the decision at their hidden outpost(forgot the name) to release them to continue to Mordor.. I just cant imagine why it would be necessary to cart them all the way to Gondor. Another point, the Huorns (not Horns) were a key aspect in winning the Battle at Helm's Deep..the defenders were getting overrun little by little till the Huorns showed up...the implication is clear in the book that the Huorns wiped out the Saramen's army of orcs in retailiation for the reckless killing of the trees by Saramen and his army... I cant wait to see this...I hope to get to see it this weekend.
i do not know why they let Faramir take Frodo to Gondor. i didn't like it alot. But i think it is because they wanted to build Sam's character and show gondor before the third movie. I did not think it was a good change. the huorns ar not in the movie. The Ents are not enough in the movie IMHO. But the besides these 2 things the movie was great
I loved this movie and also the fellowship! How can you not? All of you people looking for small things you thought would be better this way or that way really see things in the wrong perspective. Way to go to ruin the impression of an epic tale who is told so beautifully both in speak, pictures and sound. It's a total package in my opinion and that is what made it possible for me to get in to the story and for example feel a wild hope when the elves showed up to help. But I can see that the emotions of the characters and the way the story is told are not like the typical american movies but that is only a plus in my book. I loved it, and when I talk about the movie I only mention the things that I thought made it great such as....: Aragorn - Viggo Mortensen rocks, it like you can see he was made for this role. The ents - WOW you could even see what kind of tree they all were. Very nice Battle at Helms Deep- Great action sequences, Legolas skateboarding was great! The Elves army- I felt new hope just seeing how cool they looked and walked. They fight very cool too. The music - When Aragorn was unconscious they played this beautiful song, the music is unique in both movies IMO. The riders of Rohan - They are like nordic warriors from past ages. Very cool reference for me as I am danish. The orcs - Very detailed even in real closeups. Tops. ETC..... The best part is perhaps that you can imagine the amount of work Peter Jackson layed in to this movie. And I think you can see that he loved every bit of it. No one could have done a better job in my book
Yeah, I liked the music a lot. We hung around for a bit during the credits just listening to that last song.
I read about scenes involving the Ents that will make it into the extended version DVD. I guess we'll have to make do with this LOTR version for ADD sufferers (don't get me wrong, I thought it was great, but it will be greater still when one sees how the film would be if $$$ wasn't the bottom line). I wasn't nuts about the Faramir character. Again, a character simplified for film. When he says his life is forfeit for going against the King's wishes, especially for letting the Ring of Power go, obviously they're setting up the conflict in the third film involving Denethor, Faramir, and, essentially, Boromir, whom Denethor loved better (Boromir being the eldest, least conflicted, and more of a daddy's boy). As Denethor puts it, "Boromir was no wizard's pupil." I also think a scene involving Smeagol and Deagol (flashback) was left out of TTT. Again, extended version DVD (No problem, it'll be out in FRICKIN NOVEMBER).
i think the movie wsa great. And you do have to look at the whole. the movie can not be a exact copie of the book. But the movie does give you an idea how everything was. characters ar not changed. Faramir was like he was in the book, even though his actions where changed a bit. But you have to see the movie appart from the book. Just enjoy the movie and do not compair it too much wich the books, if you will think lesser of the movie if you did. I oved the books and i loved the movie, i can't wait to see him again
The music was terrible. They played the same 3 songs over, and over, and over, and over again. Rubbish. They should have had John Williams score the movies.
I saw TTT yesterday. Here are my thoughts (CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS!!!): The Good: The Acting: Top notch. Eowyn, Aragorn, Gollum, Theodin, Eomer, Grima, and Gandalf were excellent. (Legolas, Gimli, Frodo, Sam, and Faramir were merely good.) The actors really made these characters their own, and it showed. Hell, even Sean Astin's Samwise is growing on me, and I hated him in the first movie... The Action: Freaking amazing. Helm's Deep was kickass. Words cannot express how cool that fight was. The minor orc skirmish was great, too. (The Ent battle was "meh.") The Pacing/Editing: Aside from the whole Ent discussion at the end (which dragged the movie down from the exciting Helm's Deep battle), the pacing was pretty good. There was no George Lucas "herky-jerky ADD editing" going on here. Everything was done with a relatively smooth transition to the next scene. The end reminded me of the 4 coinciding battles in The Phantom Menace, only expertly done this time. As you can tell, I think Lucas has a LOT to learn about filmmaking... Which leads me to ... The Direction: Peter Jackson is amazing. Every little nuance and detail shows. I noticed this in the first movie, and it continues here, too. The way the landscape is shown, the way the camera pans close to the character's eyes, the different camera angles employed, the scope of the orc armies. All superb. I especially liked the "Aragorn tracks the hobbits to the forest" scene. Very well done blending the flashbacks and Aragorn's tracking analysis together. Call me crazy, but I also dug the scene with Elrond and Arwen. It was really cool of Jackson to show the future of Arwen and Aragorn (again, a little detail that added to the movie immensely). Gollum: The CGI here was top-notch. After a while of watching, I forget I was watching a CGI creation... almost. Andy Serkis did a great job with the voice. WETA did a terrific job rendering his movements and especially the face expressions (his blue eyes were big and haunting). The scene where he talks to himself was perfect, IMO. Now, is Gollum worthy of an Oscar? Animation... yes. Acting... no. I don't see the Academy even nominating Serkis/WETA for this performance, but that has more to do with politics than worthiness. Hell, if McKellan couldn't win for Gandalf last year (and make no mistake, he was the favorite in the Oscar race), what chance does Gollum have? The F/X: Aside from a few minor quibbles, the effects were fantastic. I couldn't figure out if the Hornburg was an actual fortress or whether it was built from the ground up. Wow. It took my breath away. The Nazgul dragon-thingies and the oliphants were amazing. As mentioned earlier, so was Gollum. I don't know what software WETA used for the Helm's Deep battle, but it actually looked like thousands of extras fighting instead of CGI. Major, major kudos there. The Score: As a HUGE fan of movie music, I really enjoyed Howard Shore's score. It was much better than the first movie. One thing, though: Not enough of the "Fellowship" theme and too much of the "Rohan" theme. The Bad (a.k.a minor nitpicks): The Ents: I give Weta's Ent CGI a big, fat "meh." Treebeard looked like a cross between a giant green pretzel, a twizzler, and a creature from the Dark Crystal. Where's the top of the tree? Where are all the leaves? When Treebeard walked with Merry and Pippin, it looked like a total bluescreen in the background (i.e. superfake!). I just felt the Ents dragged the movie down. Yes, they take a long time to do things, but half the Ent scenes consisted of Treebeard walking with Merry and Pippin. To cut away from Helm's Deep to yet another shot of Treebeard walking brought the movie to a halt. As for the actual Ents storming Isengard, I thought it was "meh," too. A little short and not much happened. Didn't seem like an actual fight to me. More like a minor skirmish. This seemed like a much bigger deal in the book. The Wolf-like Thingies the Orcs Rode: This CGI looked like something from the first Harry Potter movie, and that ain't no compliment. The Oliphants and Nazgul-riding dragon-thingies were MUCH cooler and MUCH more life-like than those wolf thingies. Gimli: While I like the character of Gimli, I actually agree with nomar for once in my life: he was nothing more than a bumbling oaf in this movie. Granted, he's no Jar-Jar (okay, not even close), but to use him as the SOLE comic relief in the movie was a mistake. Gimli deserves better. Sure, he had his moments, but I actually preferred Rhys-Davies as Treebeard than I did as Gimli. Helm's Deep: So, if you ride a horse through thousands of orcs (excuse me, Uruk-Hai) clammering to kill everything in their path, you'll plow through them like butter. Um, ok. The Balrog: Fantastic fight. Now... tell me how, after dropping what looked like thousands of feet into water, did Gandalf and the Balrog end up on top of the mountain?? Saruman the Dumbass: Pop quiz, hotshot. A bunch of pissed-off trees are coming for you. You're a powerful wizard (and head of your order). What do you do? Surely, you can do something to stop them, right? Hmmm... I think I'll go on the balcony and look confused and helpless. Yes, that should work out... juuuuuust... fine. (*NOTE: This has more to do with the source material than with the movie itself.) Grima Should Die: Aragorn's decision to convince Theodin NOT to kill Grima resulted in the very battle at Helm's Deep (not to mention Aragorn's almost-death). "Enough blood has been spilled," he says (to paraphrase). Nice move. Tell that to the widowers at Helm's Deep... Overall, the movie was great. I actually liked the first movie better, though, only because I thought the second book was the weakest of the 3. The problem with TTT is that there is no beginning or end, so it's hard to judge by itself. Once I see it again (and again... and again), I'm sure it'll grow on me to the point where it's neck and neck with "Fellowship." All I know is that I can't wait until "Return of the King" and the eventual extended version of TTT. I'll be counting the days and scouring the streets of NYC for a decent bootleg of TTT... Oh, and this movie makes Attack of the Clones and The Phantom Menace (which I actually watched RIGHT before seeing TTT) look like a student film. I sincerely hope Lucas is brimming with jealousy right now, because his movies don't hold a candle to Frodo and Co. Hopefully, competition and ego will spur Lucas in the right direction this time...
Good commentary VesceySux. I thought the Ents were done pretty well. But they were a bit too 'leggy' and 'bendable' than what I imagined them to be. The storming of Isengard could have been a lot longer, but it satisfied me enough. I loved Saruman's reaction when he saw all those Ents kicking the crap out of his Orcs. Perhaps we will see more of it in ROTK, maybe in flashback. The Wargs were a bit cheesy. But they were never really described by Tolkien (as I can remember), just as large wolves which the Orcs rode. Not much to go on. Gimli was funny, but I wanted to see him be more serious. In FOTR, he was a much more serious character. And now suddenly he is a bumbling sidekick? What gives? But he had his moments. Helms Deep was overall very well done. But are you talking about the way that Aragorn and Theoden rode through the Uruk-hai, or Gandalf? Because Gandalf is now immortal, and cannot be harmed. I just presumed he killed a hell of a lot of Uruk-hai. But when Aragorn and Theoden did it (out of the hall), it looked very unbelievable. (Some Uruk-hai have inherited the Stormtroopers 'can't his anything for ****' syndrome). The part with the Balrog is explained in the book. Gandalf fell down with it, and plunged into the water, which extinguished its flame. They got out of the water (still fighting), and climbed a staircase to the top of the mountain. Can't add much to your Saruman complaint. I (and others) thought about that as well. I just assume that its part of his downfall, without his Orcs and Uruk-hai, he has lost his power. He knows Gandalf will be coming to him shortly to 'finish him off'. Grima still has a part to play in the movie. That's all I will say for now. The Smeagol/Deagol part will be in added to ROTK, Peter Jackson said in an interview. PJ and co. have obviously cut a lot from this film. Look at the trailers going back to the sneak preview shown at the end of FOTR, where was the part when Gandalf is talking to Aragorn? It's even in the EA Game!? The ending kind of left me empty, in a way. I think Gandalf and co. should have got on their horses and rode to Isengard (as in the book).
On the contrary...I seem to remember the Ent battle in the book being quite short as well. In fact, it was kind of glossed over, almost told in retrospect rather than an active storytelling of what was going on. I got the impression tha the Ents rolled Isengard rather quickly, and with little difficulty, just like in the movie. I may be wrong, but I distinctly remember reading the book and thinking "Damn...I bet that Ent battle would be cool in the movie, I hope Jackson spends a little more time with it than Tolkien did." Maybe it was just me, but I found Gollum to be just as humorous as Gimli. Gimli was funny, but I didn't see him as the sole source of comic relief. In fact, I was a little disappointed that Jackson played the Gollum inner argument battle for laughs. Unfortunately, in the book, this is the way it happened as well. I seem to remember Tolkien mentioning that the Orcs were all shaking in their boots from the blast of the giant horn...which never really sat well with me after the reading, either. I suppose this was just a good way to demonstrate Aragorn and company's valor and courage. What bothered me more was that Gandalf was apparently killed and was "sent back" by someone which is never really explained. The whole battle against the Balrog takes on a very mystical tone, almost as if both the Balrog and Gandalf are killed falling down, and do battle in the immediate afterlife somehow. I don't think he should die...simply because he didn't die in the books and since the movie didn't have the great scene of Gandalf and friends ascending the Orthanc tower to talk to Saruman, then he still has much more purpose left in this movie. I do agree that the change of Wormtongue being let go rather than just escaping didn't make much sense. We already got the lesson that you shouldn't just kill anyone because you think they deserve it (Gandalf's speech to Frodo concerning Gollum in the first movie)...this just seems like overkill. I definitely agree. I remember seeing Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and thinking to myself... "Self, this movie didn't totally suck, but for some reason I just can't bring myself to say it was anywhere near good." For a while, I couldn't put my finger on what it was I didn't like. But now that I have seen the LOTR movies and what Jackson has done with the books, I can see how much room for improvement there was for the Star Wars movies. Damn George Lucas.
Yep, I know he does. As Raven Lunatic put it (very well and better than I did, I might add), I didn't like how Grima was spared. He should have escaped, not be set free due to pity and mercy. Gotcha. Thanks for the explanation. It's been a while since I read the books. Regarding mowing down Uruk-Hai with horses, I was referring to the climatic Theodin/Aragorn ride across the bridge. Seemed a little cheesy and unbelievable (well, for a fantasy flick). It seems the "orcs as stormtroopers" theory does fit here well. As for the razing of Isengard, I just wanted more. Wasn't it the climax of the second book? You're talking about taking down ONE of the Two Towers, alluded to in the title. Shouldn't it get more screen time? Seemed rather easy to me in the movie (flood = job well done). If I were the men of Middle-Earth, I'd say "Screw an alliance with the elves and dwarves! The Ents are one powerful, ass-kicking race! I want to fight with them!"
