[Colin Glassey] The Two Towers
I saw it earlier today. I liked it a great deal. Its a huge long film that is gripping and intense for most of the film. The set design for Edoras was incredible, a really well realized Scandinavian settlement circa 900 AD.
I didn't like the changes made to the book. Why Peter Jackson thinks he can come up with better thought out character motivations than Tolkien is beyond me. Some of his changes (and there are quite a few) are inferior in thought process to what Tolkien wrote. I'll name the most glaring:
- In the movie the Ents choose not to fight Saruman. Instead Treebeard takes Merry and Pippen to the border of Fangorn forest and only then discovers that Saruman has been chopping down trees and then Treebeard orders the attack on Isengard. Suddenly all the Ents appear (what had they been doing? Following Treebeard around?) and destroy Isengard in a fantastic onslaught of computer generated attack trees. (Which was great, the computer animated Ents were super). In the book, the Ents know about the destruction of their forest by Saruman and at the Entmoot they learn from Merry and Pippen that Saruman is now using Orcs to do his bidding. That settles it for the Ents and so they go off, en mass, to destroy Isengard. The book makes more sense than than the movie.
- In the movie, Faramir swiftly realizes that Frodo has the ring of power and he takes Frodo with his forces, under guard, to Osgiliath, with the stated intention of handing him, and his ring, over to his father, Denethor. Then, after a very nice speech by Samwise, he relents and sends them on their way, letting another Gondorian commander in on what he is doing. Frankly, this makes very little sense. The book is better. In the book, Faramir suspects that Frodo is carrying Isildur's Bane and suspects that it might be interesting to his father, but sends Frodo on his way secretly. Only he knows what he is doing, his men don't question his orders. He himself goes back to Gondor and tells his father what he did. This shows Faramir to be a true hero and worthy of the hand of Eowen. In the book, two men resist the lure of the ring, Aragorn and Faramir.
As for the actor playing Faramir, all I can say is: bring back Sean Bean!
The battle of Helms Deep is very exciting and emotional. The ending is nearly perfect with Gandolf the White charging into the line of orcs. That is mythic material there.
Some of Peter Jackson's changes are fine and work. A party of Elven archers from Lothlorien show up and aid in the defence of Helm's Deep. Nice touch. Screen time for Arwen, Elrond, and (very briefly) Galadriel. Good to keep them invovled in the plot. An early fight between Riders of Rohan, Aragorn, and some Warg Riders: good battle.
Finally, considering this movie is called The Two Towers, it is amazing that the climactic scenes from the book are not in the film. No Shelob's Lair, no confrontation between Saruman and Gandolf at the foot of Orthanc. This really was a disapointment to me as the confrontation between Gandolf and Saruman is one of my favorite scenes in all the books. All of that has been pushed off to the third movie. How long is the Return of the King going to be? 5 hours long? They have lot of events to go through in the third film. Are they going to skip Saruman's attempt to ruin the Shire at the end of the story? That would be sad.
Still and all, a great film. Monumental, epic, staggering, even better than the first film.
8:25:30 PM 
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