Re: Why the Two Towers film is crap
Posted by:
Sarah (---.vip.uk.com)
Date: January 14, 2003 03:06PM
<HTML>Having just read through this thread, I can only say that I'm 100% in sympathy with the general opinion, which is so unlike me that I may consider recording it in my journal! I loved <i>The Fellowship of the Ring,</i> hated <i>The Two Towers,</i> and all for broadly the reasons already outlined.
However, there is also one really ghastly bloophole in the second film to which I don't think anyone has yet alluded. In the book, as most of us are well aware, Treebeard and his Ents decide to attack Isengard as soon as they have finished their Entmoot; they don't need persuading to do so by Merry and Pippin. All right, the two hobbits catalyse the attack, but the way I read Tolkien's account is that it would almost certainly have happened anyway eventually, since the Ents were so angry with Saruman about the destruction of their trees. In the film, however, Merry has to precipitate the attack by getting Treebeard to go south instead of north, so that he sees Saruman's devastation for himself. But how the mischief does Merry know where to send Treebeard? He has no way of knowing what Saruman has been up to, and he certainly has never been in that part of the forest himself. I could almost throw things when I think about it.
David describes Haldir and company as "the S&M pansies", and when Haldir was killed he uttered the immortal words, "Oh dear, they've spoilt his frock!". Enough said. Gay I have no problem with; gay and camp I have a bit of a problem with; camp without even the excuse of being gay, aaaaargh...
Finally, a little LOTR anecdote. David has temporarily installed his TV in my living room until he gets his own house, which feels really weird as I'm not a TV person at all, but it did mean I got to see the extended version of <i>The Fellowship of the Ring.</i> The cats had never seen TV in their lives. Minsky took one look at it and sauntered off contemptuously, the little ginger lunatics were too busy fighting to be interested, but big soppy Chomsky was fascinated. He jumped up on the sofa towards the end of the film, and crouched as if to pounce. You could just hear him thinking, "Er, er, don't worry, Mr Boromir, I'll help... er... oh, too late..." Probably just as well the Orcs weren't real - I don't think poor old Chomsky would last five seconds against a single Orc, let alone a whole troop of them.</HTML>