OT: The Two Tower.

[Ragnarok]

lol! That is great Heman. Thanks for lettings us know about that.
And actually it's not in progress, it's already been filmed. Over the next year they will just be adding more footage to what they already have.

[Desdinova]

i like the idea they had for filming this trilogy all at once instead of individually. it was a bit of a risk for them to do it as they werent sure if the first one would do well at the box office. can you imagine spending 3 years filming a movie. i wonder if they ever wondered which life was real and which was a story.

[klausD]

I did not like the movie too much. It was not bad, but the first part was really much better. There have been many unsatisfying scenes at the 2 towers so I dont think I will see it a second time. (maybe as DVD)
The fellowship was a milestone in cinema, but the 2 towers was at best average. I am no Tolkin buff, but there have been too many changes to the books and some of them have been unnecessary.

Also some scenes have been not fully authentic (just one arrow is enough to distract a Nazgul and his mighty beast from getting the ring? Whats this?) I also hate the concept of the usual "funny person" (in this film it was gimly) but maybe this is due to the fact that I am normally watching more european movies than hollywood movies.

Another bad scenes have been
-the attack of wormtonques bodyguards and the following karate session of gimli, aragorn and legolas. (ridicolous...)
-legolas surfing down the stairs and shooting 3 orcs (maybe I am too old for this kind of "fun")Next film we see Gandalf on a white mountain bike
- elves are shooting from behind the helms deep wall without seeing the heavily armored orcs (only vulnerable at the neck and under the arms)and there have been so many hits?
And so on...

On the other hand some scenes have been very good. Gollum was the best actor in this movie and the attack of the wargs has been sensational (but unnecessary for the story). I liked also the gate of Mordor scene and the mumakils with their 4 tusks. Some changes of the books have been good(Gandalfs exorcisting the king) and the ents great attack of Isengard (but why did Saruman not defend with magic?)

KlausD

[Desdinova]

Originally posted by klausD:
- elves are shooting from behind the helms deep wall without seeing the heavily armored orcs (only vulnerable at the neck and under the arms)and there have been so many hits?
And so on...
KlausD

as for the number of hits, with the size of the army rushing the wall it would be rather hard not to hit something, even the occasional friend on the wall they are shooting over.
as for the accuracy of shots, elves are just excellent marksmen with bows (actually it just looks good on the screen (thats hollywood for ya))

edit: plus if i remember correctly the Longbow is capable of piercing platemail in real life, even bulletproof glass.

[ December 22, 2002, 03:36: Message edited by: desdinova ]

[Fyron]

the ents great attack of Isengard (but why did Saruman not defend with magic?)

In the book, he did. A number of ents were burnt to a crisp by fire shooting up from the ground (likely from burning/exploding oil). And besides, he was terrified, and caught off-guard. He never suspected that the ents would attack him.

I really didn't like how Pippin and Merry convinced Fangorn to rally the ents. It greatly detracted from their character (the ents), and made them seem too jaded. The entmoot hastily (for ents) decided to attack Isengard, not leave it be.

Also, I did not like how Theoden was portrayed as a coward (after spell was broken), being unwilling to fight Saruman. He was very willing to in the book.

Oh, and it seemed odd to me that Theoden said "And so it begins" at the beginning of the battle of Helm's Deep. What is he, a Vorlon?

[ December 22, 2002, 06:58: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[klausD]

as for the accuracy of shots, elves are just excellent marksmen with bows Ok this is true, but nobody can hit anybody without seeing him. In this case hits are only pure luck.

And yes longbows have been able to penetrate plate armor. But historically they have to had a optimal entry ankle to achieve this. (similar to a crossbow which have been better at short distances for such a mission) In Austria we have some very interesting special museums called "Zeughaus" (house of things) which shows and describes nearly all medevial weapons which has been used in Europe in those times. I can really recommend this if you ever visit our country.

I really didn't like how Pippin and Merry convinced Fangorn to rally the ents Yes this was a little bit like a speach from the president to raise morale of the soldiers.
Why should a race of thousand year old entities even listen at those tiny little 30 year old hobbits? And why did they think hobbits are orcs? And what was with that gandalf scene when treebeard carried the hobbits to gandalf? Why dont they go with gandalf? The sorcerer met the rest of the fellowship a little bit later and he didnot even mention that he met Pippin and Merry, Hä? Very strange.

All in all the ents have not been portrayed that good. For my taste they have been too fast. Treebeard spoke too much and he comprehended to fast. There should have been a symbolic time delay (2 seconds at least) between a spoken word from the hobbits and an answer of treebeard to portray the different time universe.

Also it was cheesy that treebeard saw the destroyed wood and yelled for help. Then ALL ents came at the SAME time out of the woods in nearly no delay time. (BTW I was very amused by the scene in which an ent extinguished the flaming head with the water of the incoming flood)

Klaus

[Fyron]

klausd, I am inclined to agree with you there.

That ent on fire scene was pretty funny.