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December 18, 2002
The Two Towers
By the time I finish writing this, I imagine the people watching the midnight showings of The Two Towers will be just emerging from the theatres. For those who have been hiding under rocks for the past fifty years, The Two Towers is the second book in the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkein, which was recently adapted for full-length (and then some) motion picture release, starting last December with The Fellowship of the Ring and ending next year (possibly) with The Return of the King.
For starters, I'm glad that the loonies didn't get their way. The film was called The Two Towers and rightfully so.
First, an admission: I've never read the books. They weren't part of the reading curriculum in grade school and I never bothered to read them. I considered it in college, but back then I had more pressing things to worry about (like graduating) than my breadth in literature. When I heard that they were being translated to film, I decided that I would stand fast and stay away from them until I saw the films, so that I could take a look at each with fresh eyes exposed to the story for the first time. Some other time, I'll describe my movie-going philosophy.
So far, it's been a great ride.
Overall, it was a great film. It wasn't the greatest, mind you, for there were areas that seemed lacking if only because of the format of the story, rather than the cinematography and editing. Let's see if we can boil things down a bit without spoilers...
The action was fantastic and the battle scenes wonderfully choreographed and rendered. Keep your eyes opened. There are some absolutely incredible stunts pulled off. If you ever see Gimli on a horse and Legolas on the ground in the same shot, keep your eyes on Legolas in the center and sweep right. You will not be disappointed.
Elf booty got soul. Elf girls like to rock and roll.
With such a male-focused cast, all you ladies and slashy folks are going to love all the crunchy bits with Aragorn and Legolas. They really get to stand out in this film -- Gimli, too, but I've yet to hear of anyone swooning over him -- and there are plenty of chances to see them being ubercool and badass.
I love the way they handled the internal debate for a pivotal character that was of two minds about a course of action. Absolutely incredibly well done and innocently humourous at the same time. It's great.
I think the biggest disappointement for me was the pacing, particularly in the earlier part of the film. Whereas The Fellowship of the Ring was largely a linear plot with but a couple of character separations and flashbacks, The Two Towers features a lot more jumping from one subplot to another. Though that can hardly be avoided in the telling of the story, I still found the hopping from the Hobbit Group A plot to the Hobbit Group B plot to the Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli plot a little jarring at times. It didn't help that the plots tended to have different pacing until about the last third of the film, when the switches seemed a lot smoother.
The Ents. My were they ever nicely done, though some of the blue-screening with the hobbits didn't look particularly good. Since we were in a smaller theatre, it's possible that we watched a non-digital screening. I expect that I'll be seeing it again before the week is out on a digital screen so this opinion may change. As my friend Jack had said about Star Wars: Episode II, watching it on a digital screen eliminated a lot of the "fakeness" of the digitally rendered bits, which I hope will be the case.
I liked this film a lot, but I think I still like the first one more for sheer impact. This one had some great action and comedy, but at times it was very scattered and unfocused. Long story short, it's worth the $10.50 admission. Twice.
Posted by KinCross at December 18, 2002 12:37 AM