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                            Lord of the Movies, II

Spring [1] and I went to an early matinee showing of Lord of the Rings: The
Two Towers [2]. The scenery was just as lush as the first movie [3], the
special effects were just as good and Gollum was much better done than in the
first film (I think they completely re-did how Gollum looked between the two
films—in the first he was less … cute and more threatening looking). But
while the first film (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings) [4]
followed the book closely (cutting a few scenes out and compressing the time
quite a bit) the film makers (Peter Jackson) [5] here took quite a few
liberties with the story as I understand (I know the general story; I've yet
to actually read the books). The two biggest being Elves at Helm's Deep [6]
(“Elves? The Elves never showed up at Helm's Deep!” shout the true fans of
Tolkien) and (sorry for the spoiler here) the near death of Aragorn [7]
(“What's with that?” we have the Tolkien fans saying).

Some quibbles I had with the film—Gimli [8] is played more for humor than
anything. While in the first film there was only one dwarf joke (“No one
tosses a dwarf!”) there were multiple ones [9] in this film (“Toss me. I
cannot jump the distance. You'll have to toss me. Don't tell the elf!” Or
that he's too short to see the orcs coming because he can't see over the
wall). And two—Faramir [10] is less sympathetic than his brother, Boromir
[11] (in the book Faramir is supposed to be the wiser of the brothers and
more likeable).

Overall, still a very good film and worth seeing on the big screen. Still, my
complaint is about having to wait yet another year for the next installment.

[1] http://www.springdew.com/
[2] http://us.imdb.com/Title?0167261
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2001/12/19.1
[4] http://us.imdb.com/Title?0120737
[5] http://us.imdb.com/Name?Jackson,%20Peter
[6] http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/h/helmsdeep.html
[7] http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/a/aragorn.html
[8] http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/g/gimli.html
[9] http://us.imdb.com/Quotes?0167261
[10] http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/f/faramir.html
[11] http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/b/boromir.html

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