The Two Towers. Go See It.

I can't wait to see this. Shivering in anticip ation.

werewolf, don't read this thread again, Delicious will tell you the ending.

Stardock is going to see it this afternoon. Movies like these are treated the same as holidays

WOM:

KG: Because of my unfortunate job situation I haven't been able to take my family to the movies in quite a while. This is going to be one of my presents to them

werewolf, unless you go to the afternoon movie, that is an outing. They sure have gotton expensive for a family outing. >

WOM: Yup...the afternoon matinee... $4.00 per ticket

It opens Boxing Day in Oz....so I'll be seeing it sometime then...

Co-incidentally, today I'm taking a friend to the airport...[she's off to the US]..who was instrumental in having the filming of the 'big' fight sequence in the final installment postponed till next year....just a bit of wrangling about a wrangler...

WOM, if you have young children I would recommend not taking them. There are some scenes that are pretty graphic. But for everyone else, I highly recommend it!

Thanks T-Man. Have a 12 year old grandson and his parents let him see everything but X-rated movies. Not much I can do about that. >

yes, Gollum is incredible! is not only well realized, their characterization is excellent and have a great 'role'. Really, the gollum of the film enhances the gollum of the book.

Well, I saw it today. Truly amazing. I'm still attached more to FOTR than TTT, but I've seen FOTR several times and it was always my favorite of the 3 books. That said, I'm seeing TTT again on Monday. I suspect I'll like it even more on 2nd viewing.

I think the thing with these movies, is that for me to truly enjoy them, I have to seem more than once. The first time to get over the annoying book/movie comparisons that goes on in the back of my mind as I watch the movie. The 2nd time around I can appreciate the movie all that more and for what it is. At least, that's they way it worked for FOTR for me.

The first movie was more intimate. The 2nd epic and much more darker. But then it's all one movie so it's a bit hard to critisize it in that manner.

I hope the Tolkien purists can enjoy it for what it is. Yes, more liberties are taken in this movie than the first, but I can accept and understand them. All the major plot points and themes are there and addressed.

We took the office to it today. It definitely deviates from the books but not in a bad way. I think Tolkien would probably approve of most of the changes except for some of the Arwen/Aragorn stuff.

The second book *was* much darker than the first, no surprise on that one.

I've been told that the movie is supposed to be darker than the first, but to me it's a straight out comedy!

Saw it. Not bad, but it's sort of an in-between movie. No head or tail, so to speak. That's probably because it is an in-between movie. Trouble with knowing that it's a part two of three is that you expect to get a "to be continued" message thrown at you every fifteen minutes.

Damnit, now I have to wait a year for part three.

By the way, speaking of book/movie comparison, didn't the book focus on the battle faught over the two towers near Osgiliath?

And speaking of Gollum. While he does blend into the surroundings quite nice, his design (and that of the Ents) was far too cartoonesque to be convincing. More shadow would've been better, they're too light/bland now.

Darn it! I sometimes wish I had a credit card with no limit! I would of flown to the U.S for the premiere! However it will be out next week in OZ and I cannot wait to see it. I still havent found time to read the books, but looking forward to that.

Just saw it... and loved it

I saw it 2 days ago.
I'm having a hard time deciding if I liked it or not. If I disregard my annoyingness at the changes they made from the book, then yes, it was truly remarkable.
But my problem is that there are just too many changes. And I don't understand why. I was most annoyed at the changes concerning Arwen and Faramir.
Maybe I'll understand when the 3rd movies comes out. But for now, I'm almost afraid it'll just get worse.

It's been many a year since I last read LOTR, so my memory was 'fuzzy' and as far as I was concerned the Film was excellent.
I guess it was a quarter of a century ago...

Well I for one have no problem with the changes. Arwens' role really needed to be beefed up (other than the 10 pages in the appendex of ROTK) and Tolkien admitted that at one time. Her and Aragorn's relationship mirrors Beren and Luthien's in the Sil.

In the books even though she's really not in FOTR or TTT, she sort of comes out of nowhere in ROTK and marries Aragorn. If they did this in the movie without any previous Arwen/Aragorn interaction, then the audience has no emotional investment in Aragorn's wedding. It just becomes a cold plot point to check off the list.

As for Faramir, in the book he's pretty much a perfect,noble character who displays little to no doubts. Most of his scenes in the book are comprised of talking talking talking talking. Need some dramatic tension in there. He eventualy does the right thing and is not far off the mark as far as comparisions to the Faramier in the book is concerned. He's just got a slightly longer character arc in TTT.

Besides, in the movies, they're playing up the seductive lure of the Ring even more than the book does (to give it a stronger on-screen presence which would otherwise be lost). So scenes are skewed that way. The ring even attempted to seduce Aragorn at the end of the last movie. It would odd to have Faramir pull a Bombadil and essentially chuckle and blow off the whole thing.

I am such a Tolkien geek

Of course, the 'episodic' 3 books meant nothing to me...I read it as one book...1077 pages....[was an old publication]...

I wonder if they'll ever turn the Silmarillion into a movie. It's a much better book. Very fragmented too, so I doubt they ever will.

Yes, Chris, I guess you are right for Faramir, although I find disturbing that he is not the such noble knight that he is in the book.
As for Arwen, the movie seems to show her leaving middle earth. My fear is that they change the story in the third book such as Eowen ends up marrying Aragorn.
Nowif they do this in the third movie, I'll be truely upset.

Faramir seems to be the big sticking point with people familiar with the books.

I doubt Eowyn ends up with Aragorn. He better not! I wonder though if they'll include anything of the Faramir/Eowyn relationship though. The reason I says this, is that they have so much to cover in the next film that I'm a afraid of what's going to get left out.