Re: OT: Two Towers movie

> (Warning: rant coming)
Same applies

I agree with most of the comments! Good to know I'm not the only one to
think so ;-)

> Well, Aragorn falling over a cliff is not one of the best ideas in the
> movie.
Neither is kissing with the horse.

> And the wargs don't look a bit like any picture of a
> wolf that I've ever seen.  (My daughter says they look like
> a cross between a pig and a sheep and a bull.)
They look more like a badly rendered cross of hyenas and bears IMO.

> (The Last Alliance of Elves and Men really was the last
> alliance, and the two races have mostly gone their separate
> ways in the millenia since.)
Good point. Especially applies to the Rohirrim, with their distrust to
everything Elvish.

> The Rohirrim have to be completely believable as a
> brave and heroic people.
I have to admit they are, to me.

> (I do not, however, forgive them
> for staging a
> large cavalry charge down an *incredibly* steep incline.  It
> just isn't believable.
Agrred. No calculations can make me believe that.

> I also really disliked the way that they had Gandalf
> "exorcize" Saruman from Theoden.
Oooh... :-( No words can describe my wrath at that

> There had to have been a better way of handling the Entmoot.
> The movie
> totally reversed the decision of the ents and Pipin had to
> trick Treebeard into changing his mind.
Well, in FotR, the fools were Merry and Pippin. Now Gimli was the fool
(and a very bad one at that), and they just had to do some job -
especially since it's rumoured that the Scouring of the Shire is not
about to be in the film!

> What they did to Faramir is just inexcusable -- and so far,
> inexplicable.
Yes. And his hair was raven! (I just choke with joy as imagine that
scene of Faramir and Eowyn standing on the wall when Mordor falls, and
their hair mixing in the wind - raven and gold. *Very* sad to learn it's
not going to be there. Apparently we're about to get three hours of
fighting with a happy end...)

> And what is this whole thing with Arwen apparently leaving
> for Valinor and Aragorn letting her?
I think she'll run away and lead the Grey Company instead of Halbarad.
What they did to Elrond was awful - all that stuff about the fate of
(puny) mortals. In the first movie, his stance was excusable, if not to
my taste. In the second one, he is verily an Elvish chavinist

> Eowyn, OTOH, was awesome, and so was Gollum.
Eowyn was very good in that she is an excellent actress. It *is* very
believable. The trouble is that the makeup makes her look much older
than she is in the book. Also, the hints of a relationship between Eowyn
and Aragorn are far too obvious, and give a very wrong impression of
Eowyn's (and Aragorn's) feelings

Also the monster in the Dead Marshes. Looks as if PJ decided to make
amends for the lack of Barrow-wights. We don't really know what Frodo
saw when he fell down (elbow-deep, not completely!). And these are not
noble, proud and sad faces, they're masks made of plaster of Paris.

My last, and worst grumble, is about the speech Sam makes in the end
(the one which induces Faramir to change his mind). It starts off all
right and direct from the book, but then, the stuff about there being
eternal good, which is completely out of thin air. For one thing, they
got the morale wrong. For another thing, it just looks too much a
concession to the very dull-minded viewer - if the film has a moral
point, one has to speak it aloud at some point, or else the viewer may
miss it. Anyway, Tolkien's moral point, if it is to be made in a few
words (which it shoudn't be), was completely wrong there. Very sad.

What I loved about the film was Rohan (apart from the exorcism business
and the minor quibble I worte about in my previous posts). The landscape
and everything is awesome. But still I think it's, if a good film, a bad
<sw>filmatisering</sw> of Tolkien.

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

Nid byd, byd heb wybodaeth
                 --Welsh saying

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