Just Saw 'Two Towers'

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Clear Skies: Are you sure you aren't posting in the wrong thread? The social disorder diagnosis thread is two spaces below this one.

Posted there already :P
And the 'invunerability bubble' is irritating but necessary...they already lost Boromir, to lose anyone else would be pretty bad for the story. Although I thought in the book that Theoden didn't survive Helm's Deep...
And what's with Haldir and the elves turning up at Helm's Deep? Besides the fact that Haldir's an insufferable ponce, the whole point of Helm's Deep is that it's the turning of the tide, the 'last stand' of the beleaguered humans which turns into the rallying point for them. The elves shouldn't have got involved - they're supposed to be on their way out.

[Dinner]

Theoden get's killed during the Seige of Gondor. The lead Nazgul gets him and his neice (the one who has the hots for Aragorn) ends up killing the nazgul.

[Clear Skies]

My bad...I knew he got knocked off sometime.
Denethor survives though, doesn't he?

[Dinner]

Denethor, Boromir & Faramir's father? Nope he commites suicide by burning himslef to death and he tries to take the unconcious Faramir with him but Gandolf saves Faramir.

Faramir and what's her name (Theodin's neice) end up being in the hospital together at the same time and fall in love. The two of them get married and Elrond's daughter gives up immortality to marry Aragon after he becomes king.

[Sandman]

And the 'invunerability bubble' is irritating but necessary...they already lost Boromir, to lose anyone else would be pretty bad for the story.

It wouldn't have hurt for them to fight orcs who don't just curl up and die. How about Legolas running out of arrows, or getting wounded? Why not have Gimli get his axe broken?

The thing is, they ACT as though they are invulnerable, throwing themselves at the orc army to buy time for the defenders.

[Dinner]

In the book Gimli's axe does get damaged at Helm's deep. The blade gets nicked on an orcs armor as Gimli kills it.

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by Sandman
It wouldn't have hurt for them to fight orcs who don't just curl up and die. How about Legolas running out of arrows, or getting wounded? Why not have Gimli get his axe broken?

What was Legolas fighting with for much of the battle anyway? He seemed to do all his close hand-to-hand fighting with arrows, which was somewhat weird...I mean sure, you can stick one through someone's eye, but you can hardly parry a sword with one...

[Buck Birdseed]

The consensus among everyone who I watched it with was that it was better than FoR.

The film was much better paced than the book or indeed the first film, not significantly sagging at any point. Nor, admittedly, were there any peaks really, but still. It also built up towards the next film much better than FoR. Compared to the exquisitely boring, sprawling first film it was okay cinema.

That said, it completely lacked dramatic focus. The psychologically interesting though of course, this being Tolkien, immensely boring story of Sam and Frodo that was the dramatic focus of the book was cut down to a fraction of the size, which made sense pace-wise but not really dramaturgically. The film was also markedly non-epic, with a series of seemingly unconnected random occurences instead of a decent consistent story, and a marked sense of petty scale when, say, the ents discover the forest cut down and say, hey, let's attack the tower. No psychological movement in the side characters at all. Blame Tolkien's inability to write well, probably.

What I really,viruently hated about it, though, was that it's probably the most markedly anti-feminist film I've seen in a long time. The scene where the twelve-year old boys go out fighting while the supposedly able women take care for the ****ing kids in the ****ing cave almost had me leave the theatre.

[Provost Harrison]

The purpose in any society in keeping the women back is because women can reproduce. One man can fertilise many women, one woman cannot be fertilised by many men and carry all their children. In a survival situation like that, it makes sense to withhold the women. So don't you worry your sweet head about it

[Wraith]

--"I, on the other land, love the movies."

FotR was one of the few movies I've walked out of. Taken as a fantasy movie by itself it probably wouldn't be too horrible, but with Tolkien's name on it it's a failure.

That said, I've heard all these complaints about TT and more (more people complain about the addition of the elves than like it; one of the themes of the book is that the time of the elves is ending).

--"In the first one they eliminated things from the book but they didn't just invent anything out of thin air."

Oh, yes they did. Remember the fight between Gandalf and Sauruman? I can understand why you'd want to repress it, but they certainly did add. The dumbest scenes in the movie were the ones they did.
They were also not particularly true to the book. I'm not talking about cuts, but about changes. There were plenty of them in areas that didn't need to be cut. Setting out from the Shire, Bree, meeting Aragorn, etc.

--"I must admit the 'I read the book and it was better' crowd (referring to any film) really irritate me"

Well, quite frankly, it was as far as I could stand the movie.

Of course, I've never really been fond of movie adaptations of books. There's only been a couple that have come out well. I've also been a big Tokien fan for a long time.

--"What was Legolas fighting with for much of the battle anyway?"

Can't say for the movie, but in the book he had a long knife of some sort as well.

--"Faramir and what's her name (Theodin's neice) "

Éowyn.

--"That said, it completely lacked dramatic focus."

And yet you rate it higher than the first movie? Hehe. Well.

Wraith
"All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost;"
-- Tolkien

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by MRT144
am i the only one who hasnt read the book?

No... could be worse. You could be a NEW ZEALANDER who hasn't read the book (in fact I tried, but got sick of it really early - fantasy books and I are mutually incompatible creatures), Half the sodding country was IN the movies.

[Provost Harrison]

I have never read the books, it means I can watch the damn film without coming here and whinging about it for endless hours afterwards

[Combat Ingrid]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
What I really,viruently hated about it, though, was that it's probably the most markedly anti-feminist film I've seen in a long time. The scene where the twelve-year old boys go out fighting while the supposedly able women take care for the ****ing kids in the ****ing cave almost had me leave the theatre.

Calm down, it's just a movie!
Why don't you start an anti-Rohirrim thread instead?
I think that was one of the funniest parts of the movie. First they show that the women are very good fighters and then they bring out the small boys instead to do the fighting!

[Shi Huangdi]

"What I really,viruently hated about it, though, was that it's probably the most markedly anti-feminist film I've seen in a long time. The scene where the twelve-year old boys go out fighting while the supposedly able women take care for the ****ing kids in the ****ing cave almost had me leave the theatre."

Middle Earth is loosely based on Medieval Europe except fantasy-ized, and during those times women would not be fighting and 12 years olds would indeed be old enough to fight in a situation like that.

[Alex]

I never read the books. I read somewhere that Tolkien wasn't a good writer and that the trilogy was made up of boring novels with a sappy story despite his efforts in creating a believable and complex world.

That said, I liked the first movie (a good fantasy movie, if you ask me). I also liked TTT, but it suffers from the "middle thing" or "bridgeness" syndrome. It does not initiate the story nor does it finish it. TTT has some pretty intense moments (Gandalf fighting the Balrog while both are falling in the deep is absolutely breathtaking) but it is slightly inferior when compared to FOTR, maybe because everything is so "in the air", nothing ever seems to meet an end. I liked it, though, and I never got bored while I was watching it.