YAROTTT
(Yet Another Review Of The Two Towers)
Immediate inspiration by raincitygirl's critique, although this is really in response to a whole bunch of TTT reviews/comments I've seen around. Also inspired by the fact that I ate three Krispy Kreme donuts while playing video games to celebrate the New Year and couldn't get to sleep until the sugar high wound down.
I didn't read much commentary on TTT before going to see it, and I've been kind of surprised by the amount of hostility towards it that I'm seeing in fannish circles. I'll be the first to admit that I went to TTT looking to like it, and that always helps, but I highly enjoyed it, and even the things I disliked the first time bothered me much less the second time.
Faramir Faramir's not my favorite character, but yeah, on first viewing I was howling over the liberties taken here. But in retrospect, Jackson has clearly and deliberately made the Ring more explicitly powerful in terms of its power to tempt men, which is an artistic choice I actually like a lot and think is even an improvement over the original. Aragorn himself is tempted by the Ring in FOTR; Faramir cannot be stronger-willed than Aragorn. So I think the choice to make Faramir give in to temptation is an understandable one. What does bother me, though, is that they have him change his mind without enough explanation. One minute, "Tell my father I send him a mighty gift" and then the next "Have fun storming the Tower of Barad-Dur!" The only explanation I see for it is Sam telling him about Boromir's fall and his witnessing the power the Ring has over Frodo, but that connection just wasn't drawn well enough inside the movie. Will have to see if this is improved in the extended edition.
Gimli Yes, the continuing dwarf-as-comic-relief thing bothers me, but as my husband pointed out, some comic relief is needed, especially in that long chase sequence up front. It would have been deadly boring to just have three guys running over large landscapes with nothing but seriousness going on. And in fact, the Gimli jokes in that sequence got major laughs both times I saw it. Bleah. I still don't like it, but I can bear it better.
The only bits that still really annoy me are Gimli falling off the horse (although that has been redeemed for me to a great extent by spykeraven's lovely Eowyn-POV story) and Gimli belching in Meduseld, although I can almost convince myself to see him deliberately doing that in-character just to break the tension between Theoden and Aragorn.
And really, that's it for what seriously bothered me. Minor quibbles:
The bad cut from Merry & Pippin in Fangorn to Frodo and Sam climbing up rocks in Mordor. Wasn't immediately clear which hobbits you were looking at -- just a clumsy bit of cutting.
I'm all eh about the whole attempt to make it seem that Arwen is leaving, but the scene with her and Elrond was lovely, particular the flash-forward -- so cool to see parts of the appendices coming into the movies.
Yet another silly drawn-out death scene, for Haldir this time. At least he actually did die.
Theoden's exorcism. But I get that it demonstrated that Gandalf is now stronger than Saruman, as the first open fight between them where Gandalf wins. It goes along with the general trend to make the magic more explicit and dramatic than in the books, and while I don't entirely like that, I understand why it's being done.
More weird expressions from Frodo, and more extreme weakness on his part, although that goes along with making the Ring more powerful. I did like the creepy bits where Frodo is petting the Ring, and particularly when he nearly attacks Sam. But I'd like to be seeing more examples of growing strength in him.
Having Haldir and the Galadrim show up instead of the Dunedain worked fine for me -- the Dunedain haven't even been mentioned at all in the movies, if I recall correctly, and non-readers would have been totally lost and wouldn't have had any reason to care about the characters. Also, visually, the Elves were more distinct from the Rohirrim than scruffy-looking Rangers would have been.
Eowyn was great, full-stop. Can't wait for her part in ROTK. And Gollum! Such a triumph. I was so so so afraid about Gollum, especially after the thing-that-shall-not-be-named-from-Star-Wars.
Legolas: still the prettiest. ;)
Anyway, so there I've bitched and moaned about a lot -- but in the end, even the choices I disagree with, I can see why Jackson made them. And I really can't see how anyone can seriously suggest that he's making stupid choices out of lack of respect or love for or knowledge of the books. I mean, one look at some of the appendices or commentaries in the extended edition of FOTR is enough to show he's doing this in a really thoughtful way.
I would love to someday (as the effects become less and less expensive) see a longer, more art-housey, subtle version of LOTR, with more of a focus on the quieter and less dramatic side of the story, and all of the books kept in. But that's not this movie, and I knew that going in. These movies needed, financially, to be blockbusters, and that means epic action and changes to improve their accessibility to those who haven't read the books. And yeah, that means more weight put on the massive, dramatic battle scenes, and on Aragorn's story, as opposed to Frodo's largely internal struggle and slow creeping through Mordor. I thought the balance between the two sections was really nice, in fact. And condensing characters, so we lose Erkenbrand and Eomer goes into exile instead, and we get Haldir and the Galadrim instead of Elladan/Elrohir and the Rangers.
Okay, enough of me defending PJ, who requires defending like a hole in the head, what with the $200 million opening weekend or whatnot. I guess I've just heard enough complaints that I wanted to say my contrary little piece.
I still have no clue how I walked out of there with Legolas/Gimli slash in my head. Grrr.
Immediate inspiration by raincitygirl's critique, although this is really in response to a whole bunch of TTT reviews/comments I've seen around. Also inspired by the fact that I ate three Krispy Kreme donuts while playing video games to celebrate the New Year and couldn't get to sleep until the sugar high wound down.
I didn't read much commentary on TTT before going to see it, and I've been kind of surprised by the amount of hostility towards it that I'm seeing in fannish circles. I'll be the first to admit that I went to TTT looking to like it, and that always helps, but I highly enjoyed it, and even the things I disliked the first time bothered me much less the second time.
Faramir Faramir's not my favorite character, but yeah, on first viewing I was howling over the liberties taken here. But in retrospect, Jackson has clearly and deliberately made the Ring more explicitly powerful in terms of its power to tempt men, which is an artistic choice I actually like a lot and think is even an improvement over the original. Aragorn himself is tempted by the Ring in FOTR; Faramir cannot be stronger-willed than Aragorn. So I think the choice to make Faramir give in to temptation is an understandable one. What does bother me, though, is that they have him change his mind without enough explanation. One minute, "Tell my father I send him a mighty gift" and then the next "Have fun storming the Tower of Barad-Dur!" The only explanation I see for it is Sam telling him about Boromir's fall and his witnessing the power the Ring has over Frodo, but that connection just wasn't drawn well enough inside the movie. Will have to see if this is improved in the extended edition.
Gimli Yes, the continuing dwarf-as-comic-relief thing bothers me, but as my husband pointed out, some comic relief is needed, especially in that long chase sequence up front. It would have been deadly boring to just have three guys running over large landscapes with nothing but seriousness going on. And in fact, the Gimli jokes in that sequence got major laughs both times I saw it. Bleah. I still don't like it, but I can bear it better.
The only bits that still really annoy me are Gimli falling off the horse (although that has been redeemed for me to a great extent by spykeraven's lovely Eowyn-POV story) and Gimli belching in Meduseld, although I can almost convince myself to see him deliberately doing that in-character just to break the tension between Theoden and Aragorn.
And really, that's it for what seriously bothered me. Minor quibbles:
The bad cut from Merry & Pippin in Fangorn to Frodo and Sam climbing up rocks in Mordor. Wasn't immediately clear which hobbits you were looking at -- just a clumsy bit of cutting.
I'm all eh about the whole attempt to make it seem that Arwen is leaving, but the scene with her and Elrond was lovely, particular the flash-forward -- so cool to see parts of the appendices coming into the movies.
Yet another silly drawn-out death scene, for Haldir this time. At least he actually did die.
Theoden's exorcism. But I get that it demonstrated that Gandalf is now stronger than Saruman, as the first open fight between them where Gandalf wins. It goes along with the general trend to make the magic more explicit and dramatic than in the books, and while I don't entirely like that, I understand why it's being done.
More weird expressions from Frodo, and more extreme weakness on his part, although that goes along with making the Ring more powerful. I did like the creepy bits where Frodo is petting the Ring, and particularly when he nearly attacks Sam. But I'd like to be seeing more examples of growing strength in him.
Having Haldir and the Galadrim show up instead of the Dunedain worked fine for me -- the Dunedain haven't even been mentioned at all in the movies, if I recall correctly, and non-readers would have been totally lost and wouldn't have had any reason to care about the characters. Also, visually, the Elves were more distinct from the Rohirrim than scruffy-looking Rangers would have been.
Eowyn was great, full-stop. Can't wait for her part in ROTK. And Gollum! Such a triumph. I was so so so afraid about Gollum, especially after the thing-that-shall-not-be-named-from-Star-Wars.
Legolas: still the prettiest. ;)
Anyway, so there I've bitched and moaned about a lot -- but in the end, even the choices I disagree with, I can see why Jackson made them. And I really can't see how anyone can seriously suggest that he's making stupid choices out of lack of respect or love for or knowledge of the books. I mean, one look at some of the appendices or commentaries in the extended edition of FOTR is enough to show he's doing this in a really thoughtful way.
I would love to someday (as the effects become less and less expensive) see a longer, more art-housey, subtle version of LOTR, with more of a focus on the quieter and less dramatic side of the story, and all of the books kept in. But that's not this movie, and I knew that going in. These movies needed, financially, to be blockbusters, and that means epic action and changes to improve their accessibility to those who haven't read the books. And yeah, that means more weight put on the massive, dramatic battle scenes, and on Aragorn's story, as opposed to Frodo's largely internal struggle and slow creeping through Mordor. I thought the balance between the two sections was really nice, in fact. And condensing characters, so we lose Erkenbrand and Eomer goes into exile instead, and we get Haldir and the Galadrim instead of Elladan/Elrohir and the Rangers.
Okay, enough of me defending PJ, who requires defending like a hole in the head, what with the $200 million opening weekend or whatnot. I guess I've just heard enough complaints that I wanted to say my contrary little piece.
I still have no clue how I walked out of there with Legolas/Gimli slash in my head. Grrr.