the two towers

TOP FILM!!

It strayed too much from the original and i must point out

god this erks me

The Ents were the ones who saved those at helm’s deep, if you look at the maps it gives the forrest is to the NORTH of helm’s deep, and helm’s deep is to the NORTH of isengard. So that whole scene where my fav ent gets pissy is a fabrication.

It was an awesome film, and I certainly welcomed the old-fashioned narrative of men struggling against adversity, bringing out the best in them.

But, old macdonald, why war, why battle, why glorify exactly what we need to regard at all times with abject horror. I will not dispute the fact that it was impressive and beautiful, but so were those planes hitting two towers. I would love to know what Bill Hicks would have made of the two towers, both popularity of film, and clash of civilisations.

One more thing, can a hologram win an oscar? In the same way Gorillaz were nominated for many music awards last year, I’d quite like to see Golum sweep all gongs for best actor.

yes you’re right blutgi, it did stray too much from the books, however i try to watch it as a film in itself

pangloss, yes i also often think why ‘bad things’ in general are glorified in films, books etc. i think the answer is that its what makes a story. if there were no danger, problems etc , there would be no story. unfortunately most of the time we only value what we’ve got when its under threat.

actually the whole sam speach they made up(i think) explains why fiction requires a bad side

actually that ‘speech’ was in the book almost to the letter, but it was said at a different point in the story (i think)

That may be why it seemd alien to me.

Also the riders of rohan didn’t charge at the end correct? And the elves never even came to friggen fortress I know that. I’m just not sure about the riders although I’m pretty confident.

Something that always made me wonder was sam’s and frodo’s relationship. O come on how many of you think they make them seem gay?

Well yes and no on the making them gayish. They need to tone down the sweetness toward each other. Sure Sam loves taking care of Frodo, but thats just his gardner nature. Taking care of the living at your own cost.

Their love relationship is like boby brown and whats her name. He goes twisted and slaps her around.

I think the riders did help save helmsdeep but the elves didnt. But i liked the elf touch. But the last movie better be water tight to the book. I can stand little fabrication. But i so want to see what happens in the book not what some director thought up. Cause the book’s two battles are gona Kick arse. the war on gondor, the war on mordor.

Another thing that kinda got me was Merry and Pippin in Fangorn forest. They did more stuff in there. They cut out a lot of treebeards stuff and them drinking from the river making them grow taller. I like stuff like that in books. It adds an extra magical taste to it. They left out little magic things in the first movie too which got me a little annoyed.

Yeah, I agree. I mean they left out Tom Bombadil in the first one!! Lol, but to put all that in the movies would be so much longer, and they are already long films. I wouldn’t mind a 6 hour Two Towers but most other people would.

Actually, i allways had my doubts that Legolas and Gimli were “just friends” and i actually have pretty good proof for this. I dont think that this forum is the place to expound my ideas, but for a taster, see if you can recall Legolas’ first 2 lines in “The Two Towers” (movie, not book)

i don’t think any of the characters were supposed to be gay, or are even gay ‘subliminally’ - they are just close frendships. nowadays society is so cynical that we become suspicious of close frendships like this. cant people be freinds??

this irkes me

sadly their has a big decline in Close friendships not people have GROUP friendships. which also explains the decrease in populace.

Ugh, that pisses me off that people think that about the LOTR characters. I have several close friends like that, both male and female. People in general irritate me. Blah, I should stop and take it to the rant house; I go all social reformation on topics like this.

I saw The Two Towers Twice!
Worth every penny. I thought the Ents were a little silly - their eyes and faces were a little too artificial (unconvincing of tree shepherds), but they were a great addition at Helm’s Deep, especially the detail of that one Ent extinguishing himself in the water (he was on fire). The elves were impressive at Helm’s Deep, the precision. Saving the best for last, Gollum was an amazing achievement. Although I have yet to finish the complete book of LOTR, I have read upto the beginning of the second movie. One of the greatest things I like about the first movie was it’s accurate resemblance to the book, although, talking to people that have read the whole book and who have seen the second movie, there are many complaints about the second movie not staying faithful to the book. I think this is a big mistake. LoTR is a classic for a reason, one shouldn’t go around messing with that, which is something Hollywood still hasn’t figured out. Lastly, I thought the whole love scene between Aragorn, Liv Tyler, and oh…what’s her name again? Ah, I can’t remember, but you know the blonde. But anyway, I thought it was a little drawn out…

What’s your take?

I thought the Ents were awesome!! They were my favorite characters in the second book. My only gripe is with the animation of them. Granted it was good and almost believeable (the graphic artist did a bang-up job), I think that future LoTR fans watching it say… 10 years down the road wil be disappointed. It would be like us watching the Narnia seris that PBS aired back in the early 90’s. ughs

i think it will be more like Blade runner is today A work of art with its own timeframe.

the film was to much about the big bits and didnt include the details in my view. Where was tom bombadil im glad im not the only person who spotted that. The whole forest bit was one of the best bits of the movie. I know they can only make the movies so long but come on you know that should have been in the movie. Second one was good but someone tell the director that horseys running into pike’s is a cunningly bad plan … braveheart need i say more. Sorry im being picky im in one of those moods la la la

ed

I’m sorry, but am I only the only person who thought that film sucked??? I liked the first one and I appreciate the need tocut bits fromthe book. They’re not the reason Idisliked the film. In my opinionthey screwed up the bits it should have been easy to get right:

1. What the hell did they do to Gimli? Instead of being a rock hard fighter he was a foolish short scotsman, constantly having to be the butt of everyones’ joke.

2. The battle of Helm’s deep was so idiotic it was beyond measure. Tactically it was the biggest load of bullshit I have ever seen. Why put all the archers on the battlements? Any fool would bung them in the court yard and have them fire over the walls. There was no need for precision, there were so many outside the castle that they’d hit without needing to see. You would then lose less people on the battlement and leave it free for a select group of good fighters to push the ladders away when they were put up. There was the stupid scene where Aragorn and Gimli leap out of a convenient side entrance (and gimli had to be tossed, sigh). This is in the book, but it is Eomer, Aragorn and Gimli and they take with them a group of fighters and do a quick charge and then a hasty retreat, before archers can get them, not some stupid 5 minute fight of two people versus 50 where they could be picked off by even the most inept archer (although yet again they seemed to be incapable of putting across that there are certain “super” humans like Boromir (it took 50 or so arrows in the book), Faramir, Eomer, Aragorn, theoden, etc. who are too hard to be felled by mere arrows).

That bullshit about the orc with the torch was unneccessary as well, are you telling me no other orc could use fire? Dumb.

Finally that scraggle of men that came out from helm’s deep was nothing like the charge that was supposed to have come. They were the force of the drive in the book and then Gandalf turned up with more (I think). They also made a tragic mistake giving all the orcs spears (i know uruk-hai, I use orc for convenience). It made Gandalf’s charge in the film seem stupid, in fact that should have been a massacre of the horse men. No force can charge a sea of spears like that and expect to survive even with sparkly shiny Gandalf. What they do? Suddenly drop their sears when he lit up? They missed out the orcs charging the walls and then retreating away from the arrow fire, whcih to me would have been a key reason why aragorn, eomer, gimli, etc.'s charge would have worked, charge the battering Ram while the rest of the force is retreating. Gah, it makes me angry typing about it.

All in all, the dreadful tactics of that battle really ruined the film for me big style. It was a comical fight, if those had been the real odds the Uruk-hai (plus the missing wild men) woulda won.

3. What the hell happened to the mighty Faramir? In this he comes out as an evil bastard rather than a wiser version of his brother. If I’d seen Frodo running towrds the black rider i’d have taken the ring off him immediatly to stop him giving it to the enemy. Instead all of a sudden faramir turns round and says, oh yeah, I understand you now.

4. Why put in the scene of the horse kissing Aragorn?

There were good points, the ents were fantastic, and I can see why they cut it down to just dealing with Saruman. I liked that bit of the ent being on fire and putting himself out too, nice touch. Gollum was superb, brilliantly done, I used to skip those parts of the book as I’ve read it so much, but they were the best bits of the film (apart from fing Faramir).

I’d always got the same feeling from the book that the film portrayed about Sam and Frodo, but had always read it as a master/servant relationship that isn’t explained in the film. It’s a fine line, but I thught they trod it well, in keeping with the time the book was written in.

But I have no desire to see the film again, I was so looking foward to the battle at helms deep that it made me angry to see it done so spectactularly badly. I hope they make a better job of the battles at the blackgate and the defense of Gondor. Shame cause i thought the first one was a really good film. Most people I’ve talked to have loved the film, but the few people I know who have any sort of tactical or wargames experience have all said it was a shit battle, and it ruined the film. And everyone I know who has read the book hates what they’ve done to Gimli. I know they don’t have the space to put in the relationship between Legolas and Gimli, but a little bit of effort wouldn’t have gone amiss.