Has everyone seen it? I thought it was great. Filmed right here in New Zealand. I enjoyed this much more than the Fellowship. The battle scenes were amazing and I enjoyed the acting. What does everyone think about it?
The whole fam damily is going at 5pm today.
Awesome. Some scenes kinda dragged. I didn’t really care about Arwen. The battles? Awesome. Watching the march from Saruman’s, I turned to my girlfriend and (referring to the army) said, “I need one of those”.
Gollem totally stole the show. I wish they could give him an Oscar. I’d never really imagined him with MPD - I always thought he just thought out loud. EXCELLENT interpretation! I wish they made Gimli less comedic and made him the ass-kicker he was in the books. All in all, I loved it.
I thought the elaphants(sp) were awsome, but they looked horrible! Gollum was hilarious, he stole the show and then some.
They left out the Shelob thing at the end. Too bad, that would’ve been a great way to end the movie. Oh well, more for ROTK I suppose.
I didn’t really care about the Arwen thing either, but I suppose you have to have some kind of romance element in the story to keep some people interested. At least they didn’t put in a compulsory sex/nudity scene which seems to find it’s way into every movie these days. Makes it more comfortable to watch with the whole family.
Great movie though, I’ll get it on DVD (when the special edition comes out a month later after the regular. 
Well, I agree with El Machinae in I thought it dragged quite a bit. I’m a huge Tolkien fan from way back, and just cannot understand why they did a couple of things 1. Why on earth change Faramir and have him hijack the ring and Frodo, and take them to Osgiliath? The big difference between him and his brother in the book is that he wasn’t swayed by the ring, where Boromir was. 2. What was up with the whole Arowyn Aragorn Eowyn love triangle? Were they that hard up to lure female viewership? The lo ve story was totally fabricated from a footnote in the book, and ended up taking a ton of time in the movie, as well as you could tell it just didn’t “fit”. And 3. Dwarf tossing? That was just in bad taste. Gimli is not supposed to be a comedian, he’s an ass kicker as pointed out above. I’d rate it as a 6.5 on the what coulda been scale.
Poman is right on character changes. One of the big thrusts in Tolkien (and T-Nation can appreciate this) is that his characters possess nobility and integrity and discipline or they have given in to pride and despair. Saruman’s motives for being the way he is, Faramir’s change making him less noble, Theoden being so wishy-washy after being broken out of the spell, and needing Aragorn at the end to talk him into fighting–these are NOT the way they were portrayed in the books, and I don’t think Jackson has improved the characters by changing them. On the plus side: Gollum looked like a real person warped and emaciated; the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog was amazing; if you’re going to hire Liv Tyler to play a romantic interest, then you want to get the teenage boys drooling by using her in each section of the epic, I guess. Still an amazing piece of film.
I’ll start by saying that I haven’t read the book/s, but after reading some of the posts about character changes I am disappointed that they happened and weren’t an improvement, however my wife really appreciated the humor /lightness of Gimli. Probably the most impressive things for me were Gollem, the overall scale of the thing and the battle at Helms Deep. It will be interesting to see where the movie rates award wise as IMHO there was no standout acting unlike Ian McKellan in fellowship, and it isn’t deserving of a best picture either, looks like more technical awards will be its lot. If Fellowship was 9.5/10 this would be 7/10.
Let?s keep this all in perspective. TTT is not a beginning nor an end. Therefore, it is without formal introductions (which we saw in Fellowship), and has no resolution (which we?ll see in Return). Despite that, it works. It?s still capable of holding onto you. What Peter Jackson needed to do here was create momentum ? he basically said to himself, ?okay, we?ve begun in Fellowship, now let?s get this tale moving?? And he did. A sleeker more straightforward story than Fellowship. It?s technically, a masterpiece. And what a masterpiece. From the sweeping opening sequence of the Misty Mountains, to the spit on the corners of Gollum?s mouth; the wargs; the former luster and majestry of Gondor; Frodo, Sam and Gollum moving through the marshes/swamps; the Battle of Helms Deep would make Kurosawa proud. It had a savagery, but also a certain lyrical quality that made it so mesmerizing. And easily there’s so much more. How all the various storylines of the broken Fellowship could be followed so easily. How the extraordinary CGI was mixed in with the ?live action? seamlessly. Yes, some of the CGI was rather ?clumsy? (Merry/Pippen w/Treebeard, for instance), but I was so willing to sit and back just behold, that it was a minor, very minor complaint. Since the rest of it was so good.
Brad Dourif as Wormtongue. Perfect. Mirando Otto as Eowyn. Amazingly captured Eowyn?s desire to fight. Yes, David Wenham didn?t have much to do as Faramir. And Faramir?s character was obviously recreated here to suit the needs of this movie, but that?s okay. I understand that Peter Jackson is not a slave to the source material. How could he be? Especially since what he was able to do works so well up on the big screen. I was able to notice so many details that I cannot list them here. But I?ll point out a few: Legolas? incredible way of mounting a horse; the armor of Eomer and his men; giant trolls and the gates of Mordor; Frodo?s quiet internal struggle to maintain his true self despite the growing heaviness of the ring and beginning certainty of his fate; Sam?s and Gollum?s argument on cooking rabbit; Gollum/Smeagol ? how I felt pity and horror for him and NEVER EVEN considered ?him? to be CGI; the moment between Aragorn and the boy before the big battle; Aragorn?s growing acceptance of his ?birthright?; Legolas and Gimli?s growing friendship; the eyes of the Ents. Again, just a few.
Some may say that Jackson has relegated Tolkien to a mere action/adventure tale. But I digress. It?s certainly more that that. Especially when it?s quite evident that entrenched in the core of this chapter is the heart and valor of it?s characters. Oh, I?ll be seeing this one again. And can?t wait to be able to watch it back to back w/Fellowship.
I just saw it. I thought the movie was good but it was too long. I think they could have cut it a little short. Some of the sence took too lon g to develop…
Enjoyed the movie immensely; two detractors for me were Sam’s little speech at the end (although Sam was always ‘smarmy’) and, although this is Tolkien’s argument, that machines are evil…Jackson brings it out nicely… it is a great movie. Is Jackson as good as Kurosawa? Does it rate with Rashomon, Yojimbo? Jackson did great with Smeagol/Gollum; highlights the internal debate nicely…
Worst movie ever. Jackson altered at least 50% of the story with taking out scenes and adding his own scenes that ruined the movie. The entire purpose of the trilogy is to get the ring into Mordor without the enemy knowing. Why would he have Frodo expose the ring to a nazgul?? If that happened the story should have ended right there because it would be the end of Frodo and middle earth. The first movie was good but the two towers was garbage.
I loved the movie but I agree with many when they said it dragged. At the end was the worst, to much talking. I thought the two halflings where going to make out with all the BS talking. The battle for stone for was great. I did have a few issues with how the battle went (just some things where not logical). *****Did anyone else notice the suicide bomber was disturbing lol. All he needed was a turbin I guess.
Jesus, some of you people really need to lighten up. Very few movies that are based on books follow the story line exactly as it’s supposed to go. The movie was very entertaining and like Patricia said, a masterpiece. I have a very short attention span but I remained engrossed in the movie for the entire three hours, now that’s something.
Alright, everyone needs to chill out with this one. This movie was almost as good as the first one. The only difference, “Fellowship” simplied followed the book much closer than “Two Towers.” Does that make it a worse movie…no, not automatically. Think if you had never read the book and simply saw the movie. Would you think it was an awesome movie? I bet you would have loved it. If you look at it from that way you can see a lot of positives. In fact, I think Jackson has improved on the book in a lot of ways. First off, love interests are a good thing. They are the foundation of a good drama, and no epic can be called such without some kind of love affair. Old J double R to the Tizzokien could have used that in his original unisex universe created in his introverted mega mind. Now I am not dissing JT, but the fact that no one ever seemed to notice any girls or even the fact that girls played an almost non-existant role in the books always kind of bothered me and a lot of critics. Also, the Warg scene was one of the best in the entire film. Again, JT only hinted at the Warg riders in the book and this scene was awesome and left a out a big error (IMO) that Tolkien never really remedied by having an action scene with the Warg riders. Gollum was absolutely incredible. Best CGI character ever, and worth the price of admission. Beyond my wildest expectations! The Sam and Frodo scenes were very close to the book and awesome in my opinion. Up to the point of Faramier, but I will get to that. Shaun Austin is the perfect Sam and plays that part incredibily well. Sure Frodo went a little more “stir crazy” with the ring than in the book, but come on people, this was a must do to the confines of the cinema. You can’t have the internal struggle and continous battles within Frodo’s thoughts about resisting the One Ring everytime you show Frodo in the movie. You have to intigrate that into the action of the movie and make it interesting. Hence, you have a little more dramatic and visual effect of the power of the ring on Frodo, so I have no problem with the way Jackson portrayed it. Thought the rest of the characters were great. The comedic element of Gimli was funny, I mean, everyone in the theatre was chuckling at it. It’s hard not to…he’s a fucking dwarf. Dwarf’s are just funny too look, at come on! Oh yeah, he still kicked ass. After he got tossed at Helm’s Deep, “don’t tell the Elf!”…great stuff, he was swinging and mowing down Uruk-Kai like a John Deere riding lawn mower baby. He even snapped a Warg Rider’s neck like a twig. Come on, even in the book he was a little comical by counting his kills and being overly aggresive and almost getting his head taken off by both Men and Elves. Why not use him for some comedic relief. Again, which is desperately needed in a three hour movie! Legolas was great, Aragorn was awesome, Eowyn hot and great, Wormtounge superb, Theoden not bad (agree with the above post, needed to be a little more of a bad ass and definitely more decisive, didn’t understand why he wasn’t???), Gandalf good (could have been a little more powerful, but still has a lot to show I think in the third movie, have to leave some time for more character development people), the Helm’s Deep battle was much better on film than in the book, Uruk-Kai were awesome and savagely good, love the Black Gate scene with the trolls, again lots of good stuff. Now, with the bad (but don’t let it ruin everything for you), Faramier was horrible. Horribly acted, didn’t capture the essence of the character in the book and just plained fucked up stuff by going to Osgiliath. Why go there? Why have a Nazgul see the ring? Why have Faramier look almost as greedy as Boromier? All those questions should not have to be asked. Jackson messed up by taking that many liberties with the story in this case. Didn’t have to be done for the movie’s case, I’m sorry. The Ents were a miss. Didn’t look to bad, but didn’t look to great either. Kind of just pulled them off but didn’t look like they tried that hard. Treebeard’s voice sounded way to close to Gimli’s (understandly so as it was done by the same actor) and just wasn’t deep or musical enough as portrayed in the book. The Ents were just way to skinny and “twiggy” looking. They needed to be thicker and more organic and leafy looking as portrayed in the book. The Ents appeared almost stupid or bumbling which didn’t make sense or even come close to their wisdom portrayed in the book. They take their time because they are immortal and one the oldest things on Middle Earth, not because they think like Forrest Gump? Come on, take less time with Men and spend a little more time developing the Ents Jackson, but oh well. I can think of some more (both + and -) but I am too tired. I would say, lot’s a good with a few bad. Don’t let the bad spoil the good though. Overall 7.5/10. First movie 9/10.
Never read the books. (Although I am going to now.) Loved the first movie. Just saw Two Towers yesterday and was blown away!! An astounding movie. Totally mesmerizing. The build up to the battle at Helms Deep was incredible! My heart was pounding. Ya, the love shit slowed things down a little but it is tough to keep any movie going at 100mph especially one that lasts 3 hours. Can’t wait for the finale next year.
First off, that movie needed an intermission. I needed some time to go to the can and get some more popcorn. Other than that, it was an excellent movie, although I am dissapointed that it didnt follow the book. In some cases, it appears that Peter Jackson went out of his way to change things. For instance, other than Legolas, there were no Elves at Helms Deep, certainly not an army of them, although it was cool to see. Then, in the council of the Ents, they decide to go to war, and first go to Helms Deep to catch all the retreating Orcs. In the movie, after all their careful deliberation, the Ents decide not to go, and when the hobbits trick Treebeard into walking to Isengaard, all of a sudden, it takes 5 seconds of Treebeard hollering for all the Ents to show up and destroy the tower. Other than that, the only thing I really noticed was the Faramir thing, but thats already been discussed. Oh yeah, and while I did get a laugh out of the whole Gimli comic relief thing, I dont think it did the character justice.
Finally went to see the movie last night. I never read the books, but I think this movie is awesome. My eyes were fixed on that screen for the entire 3 hours. As has been said, Gollem was great. He seemed like a real person, struggling with the good and evil within his own soul. He hardly looked like a computer generated character.
Nobody has mentioned the flying dragons. Those winged beasts took my breath away; I wish we could’ve seen much more of them. Does anybody know what kind of dragon they were? I know there are different kinds, but I’m not familiar with the differences. Would be awesome to fly across NYC’s skyline on one of those things.
Love the movie. The first one was better but thats probably b/c I read the trilogy and thought that it followed JT more accurately. The fight scenes were awesome though. And Gollum definetly stole the show!
There is just a couple of things I noticed: In the books, the Nazgul fly on winged horses if my memory serves correctly, not dragons. Also, Faramir basically kidnapping Frodo and Sam was horrid. I thought that ruined that part of the movie.
Someone pointed out above that they left out Shelob. Jackson obviously took some liberties there also in that although Shelob was in TTT the book, he left her out until Return. We know this because Gollum says that he will “let her take care of the nasty little hobbitses.” Obsvisouly foreshadowing to the next movie.