Journal FortKnox's Journal: TTT Revisited 10
OK, I finally went out to see The Two Towers again. The LoTR movies are a 2-see movies. The first time to see how they did everything and to enjoy the story. The second time to analyze and see the familiarities it has with the book. Because I wasn't done with the second book the first time I saw the movie, we had to wait a while until I went to see it again (and extra time to get someone to watch joey, too). Anywho, here's my analysis. It contains plot summaries, not necessarily spoilers, but if you haven't seen the movie yet you may not want to read (honestly, if you haven't, you probably already heard all the spoilers anyway):
First, and formost, the guy that did Smeagel (aka Gollum) deserves an award. There is no doubt about how perfectly he portraited the part.
The actress that played Eowyn is a hottie (had to throw that in). I'd even say she'd be a better "geek" fantasy than natalie portman.
And finally, the only thing that rubbed me the wrong way (except ending where it did [1]) was Faramir. The whole elf sequence was fine, even though it wasn't in the story. The "falling into the river after the warg battle" was fine by me. The only thing that really got to me was the portrail of Faramir. In the book, Faramir was very smart and clever. He was the one supposed to go to the Fellowship instead of his brother Boromir, but Boromir was too headstrong and stubborn and insisted on going. Faramir knew about the ring, but also knew the graveness that it possessed. Once he knew Frodo had it, he wanted nothing to do with it (WTF? Forcing them to go back to Gondor? Its exactly the OPPOSITE of what happened in the book). Anyway, I just thought that part was poorly done.
Don't get me wrong. The writing of the script follows the book better than any other rescripting of a book. He even uses direct lines throughout the movie. I just thought that the portail of Faramir was a bit off, but it didn't make the movie any less magical.
[1]: Where they should have ended the movie. If you haven't read The Two Towers book, don't read this. It'll be plot twists from the "Return of the King" movie!! However, I generalized it to not give anything major away, just a little tease of what's to come.
SPOILER
They should have ended the movie when the one hobbit starts walking away after the incident with Shelob. That would be enough emotion to get the audience to start reading the books to see what happens next >:-)
First, and formost, the guy that did Smeagel (aka Gollum) deserves an award. There is no doubt about how perfectly he portraited the part.
The actress that played Eowyn is a hottie (had to throw that in). I'd even say she'd be a better "geek" fantasy than natalie portman.
And finally, the only thing that rubbed me the wrong way (except ending where it did [1]) was Faramir. The whole elf sequence was fine, even though it wasn't in the story. The "falling into the river after the warg battle" was fine by me. The only thing that really got to me was the portrail of Faramir. In the book, Faramir was very smart and clever. He was the one supposed to go to the Fellowship instead of his brother Boromir, but Boromir was too headstrong and stubborn and insisted on going. Faramir knew about the ring, but also knew the graveness that it possessed. Once he knew Frodo had it, he wanted nothing to do with it (WTF? Forcing them to go back to Gondor? Its exactly the OPPOSITE of what happened in the book). Anyway, I just thought that part was poorly done.
Don't get me wrong. The writing of the script follows the book better than any other rescripting of a book. He even uses direct lines throughout the movie. I just thought that the portail of Faramir was a bit off, but it didn't make the movie any less magical.
[1]: Where they should have ended the movie. If you haven't read The Two Towers book, don't read this. It'll be plot twists from the "Return of the King" movie!! However, I generalized it to not give anything major away, just a little tease of what's to come.
SPOILER
They should have ended the movie when the one hobbit starts walking away after the incident with Shelob. That would be enough emotion to get the audience to start reading the books to see what happens next >:-)
Faramir and ending point (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as the ending, they almost had to move the conclusion up some. They moved it by a chapter or so at the end of Fellowship, and now the end of Two Towers was probably about 3 chapters before the end of the book. The thing is, Return of the King is the shortest of the books in terms of actual material, the only reason it is of comparable thickness to the other two books in the three volume sets is the voluminous appendicies at the end. Couple this with the fact that Jackson has decided to cut the scouring of the shire, as well as some of the stuff and in order to create a time balanced set of three movies he has to slide the end points to earlier points than what is in the books.
Re:Faramir and ending point (Score:1)
My wish? (Score:2)
The guy they got was a dork.
Re:My wish? (Score:1)
Hopefully Arnold Horshack wasn't what you had in mind!
Indeed. (Score:2)
Ent trickery (Score:1)
Re:Ent trickery (Score:1)
Re:Ent trickery (Score:1)
Re:Ent trickery (Score:2)
I found it distasteful that the fellowship characters knew all and everyone else had to be swayed by them, when in the books they are all falable and not perfect.
I'm chiming in a little late, but... (Score:2)
One thing I loved about Faramir (he and Eowyn are my favorite characters in the book), is that he was *above* all that. He was noble, moreso in many ways than Aragorn was portrayed. He had strength of character that was rare even in a fantasy series all *about* strength of character. And I *liked* that.
However, I think I can at least explain what Jackson was shooting for. In the first two movies,