Movie Review
Dec. 31st, 2002 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljMy take on the Two Towers :))
Right off the bat I'll warn you, here there be spoilers. Second of all, I've tried to get all the names right, spellings and such but a little slack here if you will.
If you didn't see the first movie or haven't read the books, this movie will be harder to follow. Our seven heroes have split up three ways so we have three lines of adventure to follow as well as one or two others that converge later on. Frodo and Sam are en route to Mordor to try to destroy the ring. Merry and Pippin have been captured by Orcs to be taken to Suraman the wizard in Isengard and are pursued initially by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli who are redirected to Rohan to help King Theoden along with the not-really-dead Gandalf now White instead of Gray.
The King of Rohan is under Suraman's spell by way of an evil minion, Wormtongue with the most excellent character name of the show played with insidious perfection by Brad Dourif. The spell is broken and Aragorn and the King move his people to Helm's Deep, a mighty fortress that has never fallen. Suraman's Orc factory is churning out a force of creatures 10,000 deep and more and they are stripping the land of trees and inhabitants and preparing for the final assault on Middle Earth. Rohan also introduced a more obvious love interest for Aragorn.
Meanwhile, the power of the ring is starting to take hold, creeping into Frodo's mind and soul. The faithful Sam is Frodo's saviour and conscience when he needs it most. They are accompanied, and guided by a conniving yet tortured little fellow, a Gollum who's name used to be Smeagol. He used to own the "precious" before it came into Bilbo's possession and his soul is corrupted. He is at battle with himself, wanting to steal back the ring yet, because Frodo has shown trust, realizes that the ring must be destroyed. Which side of him will win this personal war? Frodo and Sam are captured by the men of Gondor who's Captain Faromir is the brother of the slain Boromir. He wants the ring too, once he realizes Frodo has it.
Merry and Pippin, meanwhile, escape the Orcs in the midst of a battle with a exiled regiment from Rohan and find themselves in the Fangorn Forest and encounter the Ents, which are old old tree like creatures, one of which is Treebeard. This whole part of the movie just didn't work for me. Most of the scenes were of Hobbits up in it's branches going for a walk in the forest. I kept expecting them to scream ".... and bring us a .... SHRUBBERY!!!!" Once Treebeard decided they weren't Orcs, which, anyone or anything with eyes in their heads, or in this case, bark, could see right off, and once they were finally shocked off their apathetic roots, it was off to destroy the Orc factory.
What of the Elf princess Arwen? Yes she's back, but you can never tell if it's a dream, a memory or real time. Most of the scenes are, as in the last movie, more or less pointless except for the father/daughter elf scene which led to an Elf cavalry arriving at Helm's Deep to help stave off the Orc deluge. They could have removed most of her other scenes easily save a brief vision.
The Battle for Helm's Deep was long, probably longer than it needed to be but it was very well done. The computer graphics were less intrusive this time although very much present. They just didn't have that computer game feel like last time. Or rather, there were less of them and not as irksome as I found them last time. The crowds, the flying wraiths, and the special effects were pretty much all very well done, even the graphics of the Ent Trees didn't annoy me even if I could have done without that thread. One particularly scary scene had to do with "Don't follow the lights" and a friend of mine had to take his 10 year old son out of the theater for a few minutes as he was shaken a bit by it.
There has been a lot of press about the Gollum character and what they did and how they did it was inspired. They used a real actor and then digitized him to distort his body and voice and it really does work far better than having a fully computer created animated character slotted in. The scenes where he was struggling or fighting with others, or scurrying around the ground were so much better for them having acted it with a real actor. It didn't look fake and the Gollum character was far more realistic and believable for the creativity.
There's no surprise when I say all our heroes survive. There IS a third installment next year after all. Overall I still enjoyed it, with my only main objections being the Tree stuff and most of the Arwen intervals. I loved Brad Dourif's role as Wormtongue, very aptly creepy and insidious. Bernard Hill's King Theoden was portrayed as strong, but tired, heartsick and nearly overwhelmed at the enormous task ahead of him. For linguists, there is a lot of Elfin spoken. It sounds like a wonderful language, I wonder where I can take lessons! Aragorn is stalwart and never loses heart as a king should be and his apparent intended seems feisty and loyal. The scenery, as before, is spectacular. The story is darker, more complex. Frodo is faltering in his determination and Sam is ever faithful, ever the believer.
And the line of the movie? "Don't tell the Elf!" See it to find out why!
Right off the bat I'll warn you, here there be spoilers. Second of all, I've tried to get all the names right, spellings and such but a little slack here if you will.
If you didn't see the first movie or haven't read the books, this movie will be harder to follow. Our seven heroes have split up three ways so we have three lines of adventure to follow as well as one or two others that converge later on. Frodo and Sam are en route to Mordor to try to destroy the ring. Merry and Pippin have been captured by Orcs to be taken to Suraman the wizard in Isengard and are pursued initially by Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli who are redirected to Rohan to help King Theoden along with the not-really-dead Gandalf now White instead of Gray.
The King of Rohan is under Suraman's spell by way of an evil minion, Wormtongue with the most excellent character name of the show played with insidious perfection by Brad Dourif. The spell is broken and Aragorn and the King move his people to Helm's Deep, a mighty fortress that has never fallen. Suraman's Orc factory is churning out a force of creatures 10,000 deep and more and they are stripping the land of trees and inhabitants and preparing for the final assault on Middle Earth. Rohan also introduced a more obvious love interest for Aragorn.
Meanwhile, the power of the ring is starting to take hold, creeping into Frodo's mind and soul. The faithful Sam is Frodo's saviour and conscience when he needs it most. They are accompanied, and guided by a conniving yet tortured little fellow, a Gollum who's name used to be Smeagol. He used to own the "precious" before it came into Bilbo's possession and his soul is corrupted. He is at battle with himself, wanting to steal back the ring yet, because Frodo has shown trust, realizes that the ring must be destroyed. Which side of him will win this personal war? Frodo and Sam are captured by the men of Gondor who's Captain Faromir is the brother of the slain Boromir. He wants the ring too, once he realizes Frodo has it.
Merry and Pippin, meanwhile, escape the Orcs in the midst of a battle with a exiled regiment from Rohan and find themselves in the Fangorn Forest and encounter the Ents, which are old old tree like creatures, one of which is Treebeard. This whole part of the movie just didn't work for me. Most of the scenes were of Hobbits up in it's branches going for a walk in the forest. I kept expecting them to scream ".... and bring us a .... SHRUBBERY!!!!" Once Treebeard decided they weren't Orcs, which, anyone or anything with eyes in their heads, or in this case, bark, could see right off, and once they were finally shocked off their apathetic roots, it was off to destroy the Orc factory.
What of the Elf princess Arwen? Yes she's back, but you can never tell if it's a dream, a memory or real time. Most of the scenes are, as in the last movie, more or less pointless except for the father/daughter elf scene which led to an Elf cavalry arriving at Helm's Deep to help stave off the Orc deluge. They could have removed most of her other scenes easily save a brief vision.
The Battle for Helm's Deep was long, probably longer than it needed to be but it was very well done. The computer graphics were less intrusive this time although very much present. They just didn't have that computer game feel like last time. Or rather, there were less of them and not as irksome as I found them last time. The crowds, the flying wraiths, and the special effects were pretty much all very well done, even the graphics of the Ent Trees didn't annoy me even if I could have done without that thread. One particularly scary scene had to do with "Don't follow the lights" and a friend of mine had to take his 10 year old son out of the theater for a few minutes as he was shaken a bit by it.
There has been a lot of press about the Gollum character and what they did and how they did it was inspired. They used a real actor and then digitized him to distort his body and voice and it really does work far better than having a fully computer created animated character slotted in. The scenes where he was struggling or fighting with others, or scurrying around the ground were so much better for them having acted it with a real actor. It didn't look fake and the Gollum character was far more realistic and believable for the creativity.
There's no surprise when I say all our heroes survive. There IS a third installment next year after all. Overall I still enjoyed it, with my only main objections being the Tree stuff and most of the Arwen intervals. I loved Brad Dourif's role as Wormtongue, very aptly creepy and insidious. Bernard Hill's King Theoden was portrayed as strong, but tired, heartsick and nearly overwhelmed at the enormous task ahead of him. For linguists, there is a lot of Elfin spoken. It sounds like a wonderful language, I wonder where I can take lessons! Aragorn is stalwart and never loses heart as a king should be and his apparent intended seems feisty and loyal. The scenery, as before, is spectacular. The story is darker, more complex. Frodo is faltering in his determination and Sam is ever faithful, ever the believer.
And the line of the movie? "Don't tell the Elf!" See it to find out why!
