The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towersby Andrew McKeeSome of you might have read my review of the first film, Fellowship of the Ring. Sequels of successful films always have to face tough and often unfair criticism based on extreme expectations. Since you know I am very critical of movies, I will start by saying this is a good film. It has the action and special effects that mainstream audiences like. Since middle movies in a trilogy are transitional films, you have to give it a little latitude and not expect as much as a stand-alone film or to make a long story short (Too late), this is a good film. First I'd like to state the special effects were not only on par with the first film but better. Gollum was amazing. Definitely the best CGI character ever. The fact that they made him a schizophrenic added a lot to the character and allowed the audience to understand the complexity of Gollum immediately while sympathizing with his plight. Gollum shines in this film and makes it worth watching. Treebeard of the Ents was an amazing CGI character as well. He suffered from the script a bit but the look of it was outstanding. The battle sequences were epic, exciting, and most important believable. All of that being the case, while the special effects were an improvement from the first film, the characters were a split vote for me. Eowyn, Treebeard, and Gollum were wonderful characters who you got to know and were quite well acted. King Theoden, Wormtongue, and Faramir on the other hand were fairly weak characters in my opinion. Theoden (Bernard Hill) might have been hampered by the script but there was no development or feeling of a relationship between him and anyone else. Wormtongue was not introduced sufficiently although I think the actor (Brad Dourif) did a decent job. Faramir (David Wenham) acts like a carbon copy of his brother Boromir which is quite contrary to the book and even without the book just makes his character dry. Eowyn (Miranda Otto), on the other hand, is marvelously played. Her interest in Aragorn flows well and she displays strength, kindness and intelligence as her character should. I think a lot of the
problems stem from the script. The visuals are stunning but the character
development lacks tremendously for a near 3 hour film. For those who
read the book, most of this is overlooked. The characters behave mostly
like you would think. One of the people I saw it with was not familiar
with the story and asked many questions following the movie. Things
like, "Who was Wormtongue? They never say and he's just there.
Why was he there to begin with. Why were the trees so slow? Why did
Frodo fall into the Bog?" As I answered him, I realized that since
I knew the story, it was a lot easier for me to follow. Hopefully they
will release an extended DVD of this film and we can see if the problem
might have been bad editing. Now I can gripe from a perspective of having read the books. I have mentioned in the first review that Peter Jackson would naturally have to cut scenes. That is understood. He did similar things in TTT as he did in FotR. Some of the things that happen happen with main characters instead of having to introduce new ones. I completely agree with that considering the complexity of the story and that most of the time, it makes little difference to the overall. One thing that was done in this film much more than the first was new scenes not in the book at all. I don't necessarily mind that in moderation but when it changes the whole persona of a character, it really bothers me. This can be demonstrated in Faramir. In the book, he passes the test of the ring just like Aragorn did in FotR. In the book it is revealed that he studied with Gandalf and is much wiser than his brother. In the movie, he fails the test and takes Frodo and Sam back to Gondor. He finally relents and lets them go but he is a completely different character than in the book. That trip to Gondor seemed unnecessary for the story and they didn't even finish the book. The last few chapters will be in the next movie. In my first review I mention the gift giving in Lothlorien and say they skipped some important gifts. That was corrected in the DVD but with one exception. The dirt Galadriel gives Sam was not there and I am guessing that means that the last section of the last book about Sharkey in the Shire will not be in the movie. Just a prediction and I can somewhat understand it. To conclude, this is once again a must see film. It is a transitional film, just think Empire Strikes Back, so it of course seems to lack since it has no clear beginning or end. The visuals are wonderful and the script is OK. This movie is necessary for the last film and I have hopes that the extended DVD will resolve much of the script problems. I am still going to see it at least twice more in the theater. Posted by Andrew McKee 12/20/2002 |
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