The Two Towers

It turns out that I managed to buy two books for my friend (as a Christmas present) that she'd already read. That takes some talent, doesn't it?

Psycho was on television last night, which I've never seen. So I was planning on taping it to watch later, except that I eventually decided not to. Why? Every single mini-review of it in the television schedules gave away the identity of the serial killer, and one (from the looks of it) gave a run-down of the entire plot. Now, I know it's a 42-year old film, but some of us haven't seen it yet! Of course, I probably shouldn't have been skimming the write-ups, but I really didn't expect that much of a spoiler with no warning, especially for a film that (so far as I can tell) relies so strongly on plot that its director banned people from entering the cinemas once the film had started. Grr.

Speaking of spoilers, I saw The Two Towers yesterday....HUGE SPOILERS UPCOMING

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Wow. Oh, my god. Amazing!

And yes, there were a few things that I didn't like - how far they diverted from the book plot-wise (and even character-wise), the use of Arwen-flashbacks when Aragorn and Éowyn were walking to Helm's Deep, etc. But overall, it was stunning, although not quite as much as Fellowship was.

The Ents were fantastic - so much better than I thought they'd be, in terms of appearance, although the eyes seemed a bit too CGI at times. The visual of the Ents storming Isengard is one that's going to stay with me for a long time, I think. I liked the extremely long conversation that they had, and Treebeard's explanation that it takes a very long time to say anything in Old Entish. However, that was the perfect cue to introduce Quickbeam, which they didn't (another disappointment).

I quite liked the way they introduced the film, starting with the slight recap of Khazad-Dûm (including, unfortunately, that appalling slow-mo shot of Frodo yelling "No-o-o-o-o-o...") and showed Gandalf's resurrection, although I was concerned at the beginning over whether there was going to be a long flashback sequence ["Previously, on Lord of the Rings..."] I expect the lack of backstory explanation could have been disorientating for newcomers, who wouldn't have had a clue what was happening. Well, be warned - buy Fellowship (book or film) before you see TTT.

Characters - I found Aragorn much less annoying in this film, possibly because he didn't slip into an American accent nearly so often as in the first film. His leadership qualities are really starting to show through nicely. Merry was another character who began to show some development, although I can barely see the point of doing this if Peter Jackson's not going to include the Scouring of the Shire *hmph*. That chapter just caps it all off beautifully, and at the moment is the most heinous plot-change from the books, in my opinion. This is strange, but I'd say that the best acting performance in the film is from Gollum, who is absolutely fantastic. It's nice to see that they kept some of his humorous lines as well. It almost makes up for the complete joke that is Gimli in these films. I had hoped that they would actually do something with him in TTT, and I was prepared to forgive them for completely stereotyping him in Fellowship. However. During the course of this three hour long film I didn't see more than two of his lines that were anything other than cheap comedy moments. Talk about character assassination...

Plot changes - obviously there's Faramir, who seems to be distincly unnoble as opposed to his character in the book. However, the main point about his character still comes across well - that, once he realises the corrupting power of the ring, he relinquishes it and releases Frodo, which his brother Boromir could not do. It's just a shame PJ took so long to make that point, considering the mammoth amount of material that was left out of the film (everything after the Ents storming Isengard and after Frodo and Sam parting from Faramir's company) which will have to be covered in Return of the King. The elves joining Theoden's men at Helm's Deep I didn't mind so much as it's not exactly a hugely significant departure from the books. And I'm waiting to see why they had Aragorn breaking up with Arwen and leaving her to depart for the Grey Havens - please, not a tearful reunion à la Hollywood, showing that Love^TM Triumphs Over Death... that point was made more subtly in the book. The really unnecessary plot change was, I felt, Aragorn's fall over the cliff and consequent presumed death. Actually I thought it was going to be cheesier than it was - I could just see the long silence while Legolas et al walk to the edge of the cliff, see nothing, turn away - only for Aragorn to do an Indiana Jones and you see the visual of his hand just coming over the cliff as he climbs back. *shudder* This episode was an example of the over-dramaticness which is evident in these two films and which I feel is unnecessary. The other example of this is:

Pippin: "The White Wizard?"
Merry: "Saruman!"
noise behind them. They turn around to look at what we see is a white, wizardly figure, when...
CUT TO NEXT SCENE

For goodness' sake!

Little things (apart from Quickbeam's non-appearance) - Frodo and Sam didn't notice Gollum's dual personality, and so we didn't get the Slinker/Stinker nicknames, which I've always loved. I did like the way that Sméagol/Gollum was dealt with, particularly at the end when Gollum convinces Sméagol to lead Frodo and Sam to Shelob, which was left hanging beautifully, in my opinion. Faramir looks surprisingly like both Boromir (his brother) and Aragorn (with whom he shares Numenorian blood). Sam talking about the songs that there'll be about "Frodo and the Ring", which brought a smile to my face. And - aha! Evadne's wonderful FOTR film parody contains the line: 'FRODO laughs. It would behoove the AUDIENCE to remember this sound, as they will never hear it again.' He did! (if my memory isn't playing up). Just the once, but still...

There weren't too many cringeingly bad lines in this film - apart from "Looks like meat is back on the menu, boys!" *shudder* And there was another mention of "manflesh". The second dwarf-tossing line I felt actually partially redeemed the first one (in FOTR - "Nobody tosses a dwarf!").

The pacing was okay, but felt a little awkward flitting between Frodo, Merry and Pippin, and Aragorn. I think that was inevitable though, given that the stories weren't originally structured that way. The biggest disadvantage of this, though, was that there were at least three separate scenes where Merry and Pippin were just being carried by Treebeard, and given the time spans of the other storylines running parallel, it seemed like they spent days just being carried by the Ent.

Two of the best bits - Sam's Oliphaunts were wonderful, even if he didn't get to recite his poem [Is it "Big as a house / Grey as a mouse"? From memory]. And 'Legolas getting on a horse' was fantastic. I loved the fact that they didn't make a big deal of it, it was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

And the absolute best part - the battle of Helm's Deep. I'm still stunned at just how amazing it was. I was expecting it to be the most impressive section of the film, but not necessarily my favourite. So much for that expectation! I just can't do it justice here in my words, but it was incredible - I had shivers running down my back quite a lot during this section. Just a couple of small points about it though - I'm glad they included Legolas and Gimli's tallies; I've always liked that part! And yes, that was Legolas snowboarding down the stairs on a shield. Enough said.