LotR, your opinions on the new movie

[Eric, son of Chuck]

Let me be the first to say what an excellent movie "Two Towers" is. However, it's not without it's flaws, and I really missed the Ents at Helm's Deep. Why did Frodo and Sam go to Gondor? Hmm. Anyone else notice this kind of stuff?

[Admin]

Ya, I noticed it.

One thing I didn't like was Gandalf - I felt he lost part of his humanity in this movie and while it happens in the books too it was much more evident in this film. I miss the Gandalf who blew smoke rings with Bilbo in Hobbiton.

I also think there was some problems with the setting of Rohan and the battle of Helm's Deep. For one Rohan was too small. Edoras was a tiny town and it was the capital? There is no way that country could have supported over 2000 soldiers. The king's palace was rather crude, which supported the fact that this country is perhaps not as prosperas as Gondor, but it otherwise didn't make sense.

The other issue is that the fight in Helm's Deep didn't make alot of militaristic sense. Why did they wait so long to fire arrows? The Uruk Hai were obviously in range, with all the arches they had they could have gotten off atleast twice as many volleys before the enemy reached the walls.

For two, what kind of horrible gate did the fortress have?

1. Wood.

2. No porticullis.

3. No drawbridge.

The fortress itself was impressive but basic fortifications such as those would have greatly strengthened it and would have made sense. There was also no use of fire on either side, which doesn't make sense. And of course a vat of oil would have done wonders to stop that battering ram.

Then there is the near total lack of seige weapons. Obviously they possessed the knowledge because they did use some, but where were the catapults?


I also missed the Ents at that battle, although the plight of the outnumbered Rohanians(?) was touching.

Finally why didn't they wrap up the issue with Saruman? He's out of the story now, all they need is for Gandalf to confront him and send him on his way. That is a pretty large loose end that they're leaving for the third movie when they could have easily taken care of it here.

I also didn't like the constant elf flashbacks. You're already switching the story between 4 or so groups, do we need to make it 5? At one point we had Legolas and Gimli, Sam and Frodo, Merry and Pippin, Aragorn, Elves, and Theoden. Thats 6 different groups. It was hard to keep the narrative going when you keep switching among all those people.

I also thought The Two Towers didn't utilize music as well as the first movie. Probably because all the constant switching prevented them from running more than 10 seconds of any one song.

The movie was good, and it had some very touching moments. Gollum was done very well. But it could have been better. Hopefully the third one is better.

[Eric, son of Chuck]

Plus, I could have sworn that the spider-lady (can't remember her name) was in the second book. That was something of a climactic moment, and I can't believe it's not in the movie. The director says that the third book is his favourite, and my guess is that he felt the third movie would be really cool with the last hundred pages from "Two Towers."

[Admin]

Shebulba or something wasn't it?

Ya it is in the second book, but really with all of what Sam does after the attack I think it is better for continuity for it to be in the third movie.

Remember Tolkein wrote these as 1 book, so the book divisions aren't necessarily perfect.

[literachi]

:x damn i missed that movie !but hey i'll probably rent it on tape or buy the DVD. any-way i saw the 1st part(who hasn't?) and oui mama was it the bomb or what!!!?I've read several of Tolkien's works and i definitely believevthat THE TWO TOWERS is a must see. ;) i mean how can such a good read not make it as a great see 8) what with all the movie effects and all..... anyway please reply and let me know if i should spend my dinero to buy the movie [b]LITERACHI[/code]

[Sam Gamgee]

It's still in theatres

Rohan was too rocky

[Sam Gamgee]

I LOVED the music in TTT, although nothing to me was as good as "concerning hobbits" in FotR. WHY DID THEY HAVE TO SPOIL FARAMIR!Other than Faramir and the ents, I didn't really mind the changes - to me they made sense in a cinematographic way. And I REALLY liked the speech Sam gives at the end. THe thing that probably made me happiest was that - ARWEN HARDLY APPEARS AT ALL! and when she is it is not as some feminazi, but as a normal Arwen. (the kissing was gross, but hey - at least it didn't overpower the movie)

I was upset that Shelob's lair (my FAVORITE part) wasn't in the movie. Thankfully I found out before hand or I would probably have screamed or something when the movie ended. At least now all the crying will be contained in one movie. However the PERFECT cliffhanger was going to be my "now you should read the books" thing - and now nobody needs to read them. Oh Well!

[Sam Gamgee]

PS: they weren't ents at helms deep!!!!!!!!!!!!! they were Huorns, which is something entirely different!

[Zooey]

WHY DID THEY HAVE TO SPOIL FARAMIR!! My thoughts exactly. They had an interesting character and a (seemingly) good actor, and I felt he was completely wasted. A darn shame.

I thought TTT was a major letdown, and I think FoTR is the superior movie. Maybe it's because TTT is my favorite book of the series, I was expecting more. It's most likely the three storylines- but I felt the whole thing felt very loose (not in a good way) in structure, and that it didn't hold my attention the way FoTR did. Also, I thought the Frodo/Sam/Gollum storyline was the most interesting in TTT and RoTK, but I thought it was the least interesting of the three in the movie.

While Gollum was amazing in his creation, I thought the tension between his good and evil natures was handled very badly. People laughed in the theatre both times I saw it during the part where Gollum and Smeagol take shape as two seperate being talking to each other (which I thought was a terrible way to handle it)! And I probably would have to, if I hadn't read the book and realized how deathly important this internal war is. It was almost played for comic effect- and that really annoyed me. And I don't know, he was technically brilliant, but somehow there was some undescribable element missing from my favorite character from the books.

I heard somewhere that the extra footage fromTTT that will be added on the DVD is of the ents. That should be good! I thought their battle at the close of the book was the most effective part of the whole movie.

A dissapointment, as far as I'm concerned. I hope Return of the King returns to form and is utterly amazing!

[Sam Gamgee]

I thought it was good the way they pictured Gollum/Smeagol, but I thought that they spoiled the conversations themselves - like when he says "go away and never come back." And He is "good" for some time. That never happens in the books, instead Gollum is always getting the upper hand. The way it was played in the movie, (first of all I felt sorry for gollum, and had to tell myself it wasn't really like that) you felt like Sam was a mean guy, spoiling everything that Frodo was doing for Gollum. I believe if I had not read the books, and seen Sam overhearing the conversation and intercepting Gollum as he tries to steal Frodo's ring, that I would have been mad at mean old Sam. As it is - I totally sympathize with Sam and believe he was right.

I did like TTT better than FotR, because I thought more of the changes made sense - ie: in FotR arwen did NOT NOT NOT make sense

[Shuai]

The movie wasn't very good at all. I agree with Admin concerning the battle at Helm's Deep. At the begining there was that one orc commander that called for the beinging of the seige. Why didn't anyone just him down when he was about to shout?

[Sam Gamgee]

I think they wanted to wait as long as possible - if the orcs started it they might run out of arrows sooner, plus, the longer they waited, the better chance they had of Gandalf, or someone, coming to save them.

[Susan]

Well, I don´t like the film at all. It´s very different from the book. Why? I thing, that P.J. could do better film. Why was Haldir in the Helm´s Depp? I cann´t understand this!

[Sam Gamgee]

I thought the elves at Helm's Deep was VERY stupid - but the music (the cross between Lorien and battle music) was great