LoTR: The Two Towers

[Andrew1999]

Yes, orcs really only have numbers and fear of their masters working for them. Uruk-hai are another matter altogether. Think about the scenes when the orcs were moving across Rohan with Merry and Pippin. You had a few tough guys in charge trying to do the mission, and a bunch of little weasels who wanted to eat the objectives. Scale that up to Helm's Deep and you have maybe 9,000 cannon fodder orcs mixed in with 1,000 fighting Uruk-hai. The orcs broke and the few Uruk Hai left after leading all the charges would be plowed under.

[SlowwHand]

When Gollum was in the river, they had to melt the snow to shoot the scene. Like to have froze his yah ha off.

[chequita guevara]

What actors do for their art. Yeah, I saw that too, Sloww. What was worse is they had to do multiple takes.

[SlowwHand]

I imagine there was "significant shrinkage".

That was a really interesting behind the scenes special.

[chequita guevara]

I don't think shrinkage even begins to describe it. I once went swimming in Lake Superior, which never gets much above 58 degrees. I was in for half an hour. When I finally got out, "it" was so cold, it had shrunk so much, I could not pee. Try as hard as I might, nothing passed through those doors.

[Robert]

It looked like no horsemen were killed or dismounted when they hit that wall.

Gandalf shines with his light into the eyes of the Uruk-Hai on the front. They cover their eyes and their spears go up. Then the horses go into it.

look clostely! It's true.

[Kepler]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I've seen marches with 10,000 people. Crowds never look as big as they really are, and that looked way more than 10,000

To be fair, 10,000 in formation looks pretty darn big. Think of a 10x10 grid of 10x10 blocs of troops, decently spaced. The brain tends to go into pattern-recognition overdrive and overestimate and extend the formation artificially (this is one of the reasons formation came to be, to cow defenders) so it winds up being impressive.

But towards the end, when you have them swarming all over the rampart AND interior corridors AND many fallen AND then many, many more circling the walls, yes absolutely, that looked wrong.

I'll buy that the song lyrics might be lovely -- I don't know, since the woman's horrible voice was so grating that I couldn't bring myself to resolve the phonems into words.

[Bereta_Eder]

will see the movie tonight

[Hurricane]

Arrian, Gandalf did die after the fight with the Balrog (just like in the book). The fight with the Balrog also finally means the Balrog scene from FOTR makes sense. As you know, Gandalf lets go of the bridge and falls down into the shaft, even though it looks like he well could have been helped up by Aragorn.

Now we understand that Gandalf let go because he understood that the Balrog was far from finished. With its wings it could well have flown back up again as soon as it recovered from the unexpected fall, so Gandalf decided to finish the fight even if it would claim his own life.

[Saint Marcus]

With its wings it could well have flown back up again as soon as it recovered from the unexpected fall

Balrogs can't fly.

[FrustratedPoet]

Exactly ... the wings are made from "fire and shadow" and are just to make the Balrog look tough - they probably have very little mass and it is unlikely that they could displace enough air to move the Balrog.

[Robert]

Of course it could be Gandalf's intention to finish the Balrog anyway, so future generations won't be bothered by it anymore.

Reasons why Aragorn / Frodo didn't went to resque Gandalf are that the bridge isn't stable anymore.
Orcs would start to shoot again.

Boromir wouldn't let Frodo go for the obvious reason that he holds the ring.

[hexagonian]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
What's with the children? Why do movies always have to have cute children!?! I hate cute children!?! What, slaughtered villages don't evoke enough sympathy, we have to think about the children!?!

I'm guessing that you do not have children of your own. As tragic as killing adult villagers is, killing children is worse for a parent. Most would rather die than see their kids harmed.

Sure, its manipulative on Jackson's part, but its a reminder that war is hell on everyone.

Originally posted by CyberShy
Gandalf shines with his light into the eyes of the Uruk-Hai on the front. They cover their eyes and their spears go up. Then the horses go into it. look clostely! It's true.

I'll have to relook at that one. It did seem to me that Jackson focused on the orcs raising their spears in anticipation of the charge, and that was what I was thinking about as the scene unfolded.

Originally posted by CyberShy
Reasons why Aragorn / Frodo didn't went to resque Gandalf are that the bridge isn't stable anymore.

..and everything is happening at the same moment. The viewer is seeing the viewpoint of several chararcters at the same time, so even though the film is taking up 45 seconds, it's probably happening in a few seconds.

BTW, did anyone get the feeling that there is too much of the 'these close calls are too close for realism'. One that jumped out to me was at the Black Gate after the soldiers turn away from their search for Frodo/Sam. It's like as soon as they turn away, the cloak goes up and you see Sam/Frodo. Why don't the soldiers hear any noise?

Frodo at Osgiliath really bugs me. He's about to hand the ring to the Ringwraith and a single arrow into his mount drives him off. Seems the Ringwraith would have had enough force of will to control his mount and simply grab Frodo and/or the Ring. After all, these are powerful creatures that are driven by the will of the most powerful being in Middle-Earth. That will should of kicked in as soon as the Wraith sensed the Ring was there for the taking.

The first encounter with the Black Rider in FOTR was the same way. Tolkien does a masterful job of conveying the danger of the menace without sacrificing realism. Jackson stretches that realism too far.

It's the old Rambo mentality. The heros are impervious to anything that is thrown against them.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by hexagonian

It's the old Rambo mentality. The heros are impervious to anything that is thrown against them.

They're not impervious to everything. Sometimes they get in really big trouble and an Eagle appears from nowhere to rescue them.

[Bereta_Eder]

Saw it.

In the beggining I almost fell asleep apart from that animation of the golumn.

Then I almost fell asleep some more. Then the battle at the fortress started and I woke up.


Nice one.

BTW I luuv multiplexes. We were characteristically late as usual and the only free sits were in the far behind right corner and still we could see the whole thing greatly

They cant compare with the open summer movie thaters but foir that blasted cold winter they are perfect


MADNESS! (as expected) 10 of the 20 movie theaters in that multiplex played LOTM II and they were all full.




BTW I almost cried when the king was freed from the spells and became his self again and again almost cried when they fought bravely to defend their city.
Am I ****ed?

Constantinople must have been an epic battle like this but we didnt have gandalf and the elves.

(j/k)

Worth seeing movie

'night