LOTR- The Two Towers

I already have tickets to the 6:15 at the Ultrascreen. I got them for my sister for X-Mas. Otherwise I'd be with you guys. I'm still very much up for a group outing. I'll need to see this more than three times.

 

My friend just got back from college, so I'm gonna see if she wants to go tomorrow.

 

Just got back from my third showing..man, I get shivers everytime i see the shot of Gandalf and the Rohirrim running down to Helms Deep, tears...gah

 

I finally saw it, and wow, that was cool.

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Hasn't everyone seen it by now? Anyway...


For some reason one of the things in the movie that impressed me the most was when Legolas grabs onto Gimli's passing horse (running by at full gallop) and just does this little flip to get up on top of the horse.

Gimli was mostly comic relief, but his role did seem somewhat expanded since the last movie, and I liked that a lot. I like his growing rapport with Legolas as well. A couple of my favorite Gimli moments were when he was talking about Dwarvish women, and when he was complaining about not being able to see over the wall.

Gollum - I liked Gollum. Good acting, very convincing CGI. The only bad thing was at the showing I was at people kept laughing at Gollum in parts that weren't supposed to be funny. Some of his extreme expressions which were supposed to be creepy they found funny. It kind of took the piss out of the character by having a portion of the crowd laugh at him at innapropriate moments.

Frodo/Sam - I actually rather liked the Frodo and Sam stuff. When I was reading the book I remember having a hard time visualizing how the ring was affecting him. I liked some of the weird stuff Peter Jackson was doing with that - like the one scene where Frodo is in the grip of the ring and we see Sam talking to Frodo through Frodo's eyes, and the sound is gone. It really shows how important Sam is in helping Frodo resist the ring.

Some of the Aragorn/Arwen stuff was a bit slow. Although the horse kissing Aragorn was rather funny.

 

i thought it was a good movie

 

I love the Legolas swinging onto the horse bit. That was just too cool for words.

And for some reason, the whole movie just seems more clear when you see it twice...guess it's that whole adrenaline rush the first time you see it. I noticed a lot more stuff now.

Hehe...I also got the special edition LotR DVD for Christmas. You know, the one with the five discs and the bookends?

 

I saw The Twin Towers on Saturday with Red05, LeiaYT1300 & SoloYT1300. Although we had our differences on opinion, mine was that the movie was brilliant. Although Gollum is still very Obviously CGI in his movements, he is very much less so in his texture mapping & expressions. I was thoroughly impressed.

Red05 and I agree, that this movie is not better nor worse than part I, but simply one big movie cut into chunks. We loved it as much as we loved the last and are anticipating Part III.

SPOILERS: The voice of the tree is the voice of the Rock Biter in Neverending Story, Part I, and the elf that gets killed you become familiar with only in Ep. I Extended Version.

My favorite characters are Arwen, Galadriel and Legolas (because I LOVE ELVES) ...and if you want to know the fate of Aaragon & Arwen, go here: SPOILER HISTORY

[image=http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Arc/6631/arwen_y_aragorn.jpg]

[image=http://www.fortunecity.com/rivendell/darkearth/958/arwen.gif]

And here's an excellent site on Legolas:
LEGOLAS

[image=http://strange-love.org/legolas/1000legolas.jpg]

PS. I know what you mean about Legolas 'swinging on the horse bit'--it was SO COOL, but even in slow motion I couldn't understand the physics of it

 

I finally saw TTT Sunday afternoon with Tom, Dawn, Tom's friend Ben (very cool guy, by the way) and Cally. And an audience full of morons. Well, not FULL, but just enough to irk me. But more on that later.

I must preface my writings by saying that I had a bad headache when I watched the movie, and was feeling a bit under the weather. But I thought it was a very good movie. Visually it was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. (New Zealand is my dream foreign vacation spot. Has been for about ten years now). Just amazing. The story is compelling. And the execution is wonderful. There were many times I was so wrapped up in the movie that I occasionally didn't even notice the baby in the third row crying. (Who takes a <12 month old baby to a 3 hour movie? Honestly!) Or the cel phone ringing. Or the idiots laughing at Gollum. I will most definitely see it again. The sooner, the better. And hopefully with an audience of mutes.

 

Uhm...the voice of Treebeard is Jogn Ryes Davies (sp?) who plays Gimli.

 

Ah, yes, the baby. And the cell phone. And the innapropriate laughter. I had blocked that out of my mind. Possibly one of the worst movie audiences I've ever experienced.

Peter Jackson did make some things about Gollum oddly comical in a dark way, so I can understand some of the laughter (I chuckled at a couple of the comical bits), but there were some people in the audience who were laughing quite loudly whenever Gollum came on screen. No matter what he did. My guess is that they were either terribly stupid or stoned out of their minds.

The baby, yes really, what is the point of bringing an infant to a 3 hour movie? A LOUD 3 hour movie with lots of killing. The child will wake up and cry and piss off everyone in the theater. Get a sitter or stay home. Or try not to have children.

And the the person with the cell phone/pager/thing that kept beeping just needed a beating. Or a public humiliation. We were sitting no where near this person, but I hope the people near him made him feel stupid.

I should also mention the kid in front of me who brought a bunch of hard candy to eat. You know, the kind with the extremely noisey and crinkley plastic wrappers. He wasn't very efficient about unwrapping his candy either - he'd be crinkling away for a good 30-45 seconds on each piece. Really, it shouldn't take more than a second or 2 to open it. I wanted to kick him in the head, not because what he was doing was so incredibly bad, but the cumulative effect of the whole rude audience was really getting to me. I need to see the movie again with a better audience, or wait for the DVD and see it with no audience.

 

Are you nuts? The cell phone was right behind us.

 

Really? I thought it was coming from one of the groundlings. My mistake.

 

I need to go again, now that I have my free ticket to waste. Have to go to a Marcus theater, though. Hmmm...anyone up to going with me again before the 31st?

 

I really dont understand why babies are allowed in theaters. You bring a baby into a movie, any movie, and it will cry. There are age limits on how old you must be to get into some movies, but what about how young? They should let any babies into movies that are less than 2 years old. If you cant have someone watch the baby for you, you dont go to the movie, it's that simple, and that polite.

 

The babies aren't the bad ones--its the four year olds who won't shut up, and the parents who won't stop telling them to "be quiet", instead of just dragging them out. Actually, the theaters are full of people I wouldn't want to spend much time with, period. And I thought the advent of DVDs and home theaters would keep the idiots away--foolish me.

SPOILERS COMING!

Anyway, I saw it today (finally!), and I was really impressed. I continue to be impressed with the casting on these movies. I really liked Theoden's "resurection"--that was done very well. I didn't care for the Gollum stuff--I just never got over him being creepy in the books, and I lost that feeling in this movie because of all his screen time--I think Jackson lost a bet with his computer graphics people, and as a result he had to give them more Gollum time (totally unrelated to "Hammer Time"). Other than giant siege ladders full of Orcs falling on large groups of other Orcs, my favorite parts of the movie were those in which Eowen longs for Aragorn, and vice versa. That was well done, without excessive sappiness. Of course, the woman playing Eowen is extremely easy on the eyes, so that may have played a part, but it was well done anyways.

I'm looking forward to owning this someday, 'cause I'm sure there were lots of nice details in the battle scenes that I didn't pick up (things like the Ents leaning against the rushing water, etc). I'm going to have to see this again, on a weekday, when the theater is less than half full.

 

That might be a while, Jason. I went to a flick today (not TTT) at 2pm. The theater was nearly full. On a Thurdsay at 2 in the afternoon! Me and my reclusive ways were not happy.

And Tom, I don't recall any electronic noises from behind us, but there was ringing coming from the floor, stage left. I have confirmed this with Cally. In fact, while attempting to glare at the person with the offensive ringing, I notices his neighbors glaring at him as well, so I do know it was coming from that area.

 

*grumble* some people...

 

When I went to see it, we went on Dec. 19, at the first showing, 10:45 in Meno. Falls. It was not too crowded, we didn't have any obnoxious people, children, etc. Just after the movie as we were walking out someone said, "Well, THAT just wasn't as good as the first one." To me, it isn't a first, second, third movie...it's a continuation of one movie in 3 parts since to have a nine hr. movie at a theatre would be unheard of, not to mention, if you didn't want to miss anything, that would mean no eating, drinking, bathroom, stretching out of unused muscles and bones...you get the idea. Anyway, my personal opinion is that it is an excellant continuation of the first movie and I'm looking forward to the last part of a fantastic movie!!

 

Okay, I've now seen it twice and will see it again Saturday night (all at the Ultrascreen) so here's my review:


SPOILERS




Best film of the year! George needs to take a lesson here because it was a very easy task to admit this was a better film than any of the SW films, IMHO. Jackson knows how to make a great film...which means he will have created a great trilogy eventually...and only about 359 days until ROTK!!!

Eowyn bored and disappointed me but we all know she comes into her own in ROTK (her cow-eyes at Aragorn were a little too much). Theoden was defeatist and weak - I wanted to slap him across the face and yell "Wake up, you idiot!." Gollum was creepy yet sympathetic - I loved the scene where the 'bad' and 'good' Gollums were arguing. Frodo knows he will end up like Gollum and hopes to redeem him to prove that The One Ring can not corrupt forever. Faramir was a little disappointing but showed he had more willpower than his brother (and he does end up with Eowyn in ROTK). Haldir's death was, to me, extremely sad knowing he could have lived forever if he had gone to Valindor. Pippin and Merry showed their more serious sides and I loved how Pippin tricked Treebeard into finally declaring war on Saruman (did everyone cheer when the tree that was on fire doused itself in the rushing water??). Frodo and Sam showed how far a true friendship and love can take you. Aragorn - meow! His love for Arwen is surely being tested by Eowyn but true love will prevail - and he is everything any woman would want - and his fighting isn't bad either! Legolas and Gimli were the new comic relief but I felt it was done well...particularly the ramparts scene and the scene with Gimli and Aragorn and the tossing of dwarves (Don't tell the elf!). Gandalf was fantastic and that fight between him and the Balrog was awesome! Best opening scene in a film I've ever seen.

I thought the Ents were great and the CGI was well done! Gollum was good - and definitely better than Jar Jar, FGS! The Oliphants were amazing. The King of the Nazghul on his mount were terrifying (BTW, did you all know they used Fran Walsh's scream for the Nazghul???).

All in all, I loved this film and will give it the highest rating, whether it is 4 or 5 stars. There are certain things I thought Fellowship did better - like developing the characters and their relationships with each other - but, overall, a fantastic film worthy of extremely high praise.

I haven't seen any comments about the music on this thread yet....am I the only one who hated the ending credits song? At first I thought it was Bjork, that Icelandic she-of-the-awful-swan-dress-at-the-Academy-Awards a couple of years ago but, sitting through the whole credits, discovered it wasn't her. The words of Gollum's Song are interesting but it was sung so poorly it actually made my ears bleed!

So, there you have it....my review!

 

I agree that George needs to take a lesson from Peter. George seems to have lost some of his story telling ability and instead just focuses on visuals. That's all well and good, but the classic pre-special edition trilogy relied on the story. I just hope E3 is good because I think we all know that ROTK will be.

 

i saw two towers on christmas and loved it.

and ummm.. these movies would not be great were it not for tolkien. he is the true story teller. not peter jackson. pj has done a great job transfering this story to film. but i wouldt say hes nesesarrily a better story teller then gl. but wtihthat said i think lord of the rings is a better film series then star wars.

 

You know, Ive noticed alot of people switching from SW to LOTR as the best movie series. Im one of em.

 

I enjoyed the 2 LOTR movies very, very much also but two films does not compare to the Star Wars empire. Five films, countless books, comic books, games and toys. LOTR is most definitly the runner up in trilogy empires. A fantastic world does not compare to a fantastic galaxy. - Matt

 

I think it does once the creator begins to put out crap. Example: Prequels. I still enjoy the Original Trilogy immensly, but I think LOTR is now #1.

 

You also have to realize that LotR is fresh. If you think about how often someone is called "the greatest <blank>" of all time in athletics, or how the Simpsons was rated the best show of the twentieth century. In some cases, it might actually be true, but in others it's just that recent accomplishments overshadow past glories. World War II was the war to end all wars, or the "great war," but think about the sheer numbers involved in Alexander's battles, or Genghis Khan's campaigns. They were mammoth undertakings. In terms of percentage of the population, they were probably far greater than the people involved in WWII.

I'm not saying that Lord of the Rings isn't a great series, in fact, I think it's outstanding, but will it affect my life the same way that Star Wars did? I doubt it.

Give Lord of the Rings another twenty five years, watch it as many times as you've watched the Star Wars films. Memorize it like we've all memorized Star Wars, then compare them. Right now, it's just not a fair comparison because LotR hasn't had to endure time. People are still finding small nuggets of new things with repeated viewings. Think of songs that are number one hits now, but won't make it onto the oldies stations in twenty years. Do you really think Chumba Wumba's "I Get Knocked Down" will be on the radio in twenty years? Time is the ultimate judge of greatness. We've all seen Star Wars far too many times to judge it against something new.

Dwayne