The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (1 Viewer)

[Morgan Jolley]

Just as an interesting side-note, a kid at school is making a movie about zombies (it's more interesting and well done than you'd think, he's pretty talented) and his opening credits music is the aforementioned 'Requiem' song.

 

[BrianShort]

The first negative review I've seen at rottentomatoes.com:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/...e=1&rid=823192
A couple of critisisms she has are:
The size offects of the hobbits against the humans arent present as much as Fellowship since for most of the movie they are on their own
The movie focuses more on the humans battle for middle earth than it does on the ring.
Gandalf is a secondary figure in this one
She didn't really find the characterizations advanced much
There were probably a few others but I only skimmed the article.
Brian

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Chris Tookey of the British paper Daily Mail has this great quote to lead off his review of TTT:

Like a mighty glacier on the move, a tripartite enterprise of such epic yearnings as Lord of the Rings needs time and patience for its impact to register.
First time round, I was a sceptic. Such protracted introductions, so many characters, and what unpronounceable names .... I was not a happy fan of JRR Tolkien. But after a year's intermission, I emerged a convert from Part Two - shattered, shaken, stirred, even worshipful. It has a grandeur that it's not hyperbole to call Miltonic.

He goes on to rave the film - though I think his reasons of drawing parallels from current events are seriously misplaced.
Anyhow = wonder how many other converts we will witness in the weeks ahead.
Here's a link to the full article:
http://www.femail.co.uk/pages/standa...in_page_id=119

 

[Brian W.]

Time, Newsweek, NY Times, etc., have not yet posted their reviews and probably will not do so till Monday or Tuesday. But going by most of the professional reviews published so far, a clear and predictable pattern seems to be emerging:
If you didn't like FOTR, you probably won't like TTT, either.
Almost all of the bad reviews so far have been from critics who hated the first movie. So don't expect Richard Roeper to give it a thumbs up.

 

[RobertR]

don't expect Richard Roeper to give it a thumbs up

And don't expect many people (including myself) to give a rat's ass what Roeper thinks.

 

[Nick Sievers]

don't expect Richard Roeper to give it a thumbs up

There is a person on TORN that says both Ebert and Roeper gave it a thumbs up. With Ebert saying, when all three are completed that they will be a major achievement in the history of motion pictures. Oh and Roeper said he stands firm on FotR .
How true it is I don't know (and personally don't really care).

 

[Robin Warren]

Now Robert, thats not a fair assesement of the value of a rat's ass, I feel it greatly outvalues Roepers opinion.
But hey what do I know.

 

[Kami]

yeah here's the quote from that story on TORN about Ebert and Roeper:

Not sure if you want to use this - but I have a close source who tells me that when Ebert and Roeper taped their weekly show today at WLS here in Chicago, they both gave The Two Towers a thumbs up.

Roeper explained that he enjoyed it, but that it did not make him change his mind about not liking FOTR, and he wondered if all of the emphasis on fighting was in the true spirit of Tolkien's work (he commented that since he didn't know the books, he did not know the answer).

Ebert said (when he gave it a thumbs up) that he was really looking forward to the ROTK, and that when all three are completed that they will be a major achievement in the history of motion pictures. They also talked about how TTT was a whisper away from being rated R because of the violence.

On a lighter note, my source tells me that they had trouble pronouncing all of the characters names, especially Eowyn's.

In Chicago -
Art

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I saw a few commercials on TV last night for TTT, and in them there were some pretty cool things, some being...


Ents (throwing things and walking), some more cave trolls, some of the ringwraiths flying on winged beasts, and some just plain cool random footage.


Anyone know where I can find these commercials online? The official site only has Fellowship commercials and TTT trailers.

 

[Robin Warren]

http://www.theonering.net/movie/preview/
HERE

 

[Morgan Jolley]

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Sorry about the caps, but I had to.

 

[Robin Warren]

Your welcome. Talk about great stuff in that commercial.
I really dig the day time stuff with the flying Nazgul. Looks awe inspiring for sure. The White Rider's charge looks like a thing of perfection. I just can't believe how good this looks.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Guys, I can't tell you how much of this was already covered in the TTT ROTK spoilers thread (like Scott's post on Requiem AND Shore's quote). I guess some of you were/are afraid of spoilers in that thread for those who hadn't read the books or something.
But please remember that this is the TTT film discussion thread, for talking about reviews and impressions of this film. I'd hate to see too much of this thread become filled with the mess that fills up the TTT/ROTK spoiler thread.
I will go ahead and start up the ROTK/TTT:EE spoiler thread for more book to film discussion and discussion of possible scenes/ideas/changes that will arrive with those 2 films, and other stuff like that. In that thread we can openly discuss all these changes and general Tolkien stuff.
Oh, and remember that in THIS thread anything not in the TTT film should be spoilerized (I don't think I saw anyone not do this, it's just a reminder).

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Ah, gee....Urmmm... I love being singled out as an idiot.
Here I was under the impression that the trailer music AND Shore's quote DID have something to do with The Two Towers. Perhaps it's that we have so many threads dedicated to the same topics. I read an interesting nugget and immediately thought to share it with the HTF loons...
Sorry for stopping by with redundant news. It shan't happen again.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Scott, I didn't mean it like that. There was no "nice" way to say it via internet I guess. It sounds bossy and uptight in any form.
I guess really it just has to go here I suppose. It just sucks because we are likely to now see a bunch of conversation over items that were being covered a week or more ago in the other thread.
But I can't ask non-readers to look in that thread either if they are afraid of ROTK spoilers. So, it will just have to be duplicate info here. There is no other way to pass the info to the people who can't use that other thread.

BTW, I have asked Robert to lock the TTT spoiler thread and reopen the ROTK thread. All that TTT stuff (like Trailer music info, etc) will just have to be repeated and discussed here from now on.
On to that, I can look back into that thread and maybe dig up the discussion on that music. Please note that one member actually started a thread in the MUSIC section to discuss it's origins and I would bet a search over there would find it and be pretty rewarding. I can't remember all the details myself. :frowning:

 

[BrettisMckinney]

Hey guys..just wondering what the "return to middle-earth" was like? It airs tonight in oz and just wanted to know if its any good? Also, i havnt picked up the TT soundtrack yet, cant wait. But i'd like to know what the production is like on it? Does it sound the same as Fellowship? I just thought it sounded a bit dull..still awesome though

 

[Vickie_M]

Brettis, I like that program, but be aware that there are a lot of spoilers in it. You might want to record it just so you'll have it, but wait to watch it after you've seen the movie.

If nothing else, Miranda Otto is SO cute in it!

 

[Vickie_M]

Wait, a program about TTT is on and you have to ask if you should get it??

 

[Vickie_M]

A mainstream TV review program was on tonight, Hot Ticket (they give "HOT" or "NOT" votes) with Leonard Maltin and Joyce Kulhawik, and they both RAVED about The Two Towers!! The most interesting thing was what Maltin said first. Here's a transcript (various clips are shown throughout):
Kulhawik: "Alright, let's move ahead to the most highly anticipated sequel of the year. The first installment of The Lord of the Rings scored 13 Oscar nominations and now the adventure continues in The Two Towers."
Maltin: "Well I have to tell you that I was not a huge fan of the first Lord of the Rings. I wanted to be. I'd never read Tolkien, so I went as a clean slate, waiting to be pulled in and taken along on this adventure and I certainly admired the film, but I never felt really caught up in it. I loved this movie. I loved it."
Kulhawik: "I'm so glad."
Maltin: "Maybe it's because the exposition was out of the way and we're into the adventure now. That may have had something to do with it, but I just felt so involved in everything that happened here and this is mostly about warfare and it all boils down to that you really care, you have an emotional investment in these characters."
Kulhawik: "There it is"
Maltin: "And this is not empty words like friendship and honor and courage and nobility, those words have real meaning in this dramatization. It's majestic moviemaking, heroic storytelling."
Kulhawik: "There are these vast, sweeping shots of vistas and you know it all conjures up eons of space and time and primeval memories and deep forests and you feel like something huge is at stake, and also there's very sophisticated storytelling here. This is the middle of a trilogy, so it's coming from somewhere and it is headed somewhere else, but it has to exist on its own as a film, intact, and it does all of that. This is terrific storytelling, dramatic, great, huge, visceral storytelling and you are involved.
Maltin: "And again the performances of such a uniformly high caliber. Viggo Mortensen, glorious."
Kulhawik: "Oh! Brad Dourif, dripping this vicious, hideous evil."
Maltin: "Now how, how does a filmmaker keep track and keep focus on a project this enormous?"
Kulhawik: "This is a monumental task. I think doing it all at once probably helps."
Maltin: "Yes, doing it all at once obviously is important. Everybody should know, and I'm sure the fans all know certainly, that all three of these movies were filmed simultaneously, back to back, so this is not like a typical movie sequel. This was not invented after the first film was finished, this was part of a continum and it shows, it maintains that quality."
Kulhawik: "And it maintains that tone, the whole feeling just continues."
Maltin: "So all praise to director, co-writer, co-producer, master (laugh) wizard Peter Jackson, for putting this together."
Kulhawik: "It's a monumental achievement."
Maltin: "It certainly is, and a wonderful, an exciting and beautiful movie. I'm very happy to give it my HOT vote."
Kulhawik: "I agree. HOT for The Lord of the Rings, Two Towers."
Later, when they round up the movies they reviewed, Joyce says "We both loved The Two Towers."

 

[Kami]

Found this funny It's from the BBC site

What if these directors had made the LOTR Trilogy?
Kiwi director Peter Jackson brings "Lord of the Rings" to a cinema near you this December. But what if JRR Tolkien's fantasy epic had landed in the lap of another Hollywood helmer? For example...
QUENTIN TARANTINO
Mickey Rourke is cast as wizard Gandalf the Grey because, Tarantino believes, "he's a very underrated actor. Check out "9 1/2 Weeks". ****ing incredible!". Steve Buscemi bags the part of Frodo, and Samuel L Jackson plays Aragorn. John Travolta cameos as the Dark Lord Sauron, in what Tarantino describes as his homage to the "kick-ass Hollywood epics of Cecil B de ****ing Mille. And blaxploitation."
DAVID LYNCH
Lynch decides on clean cut alter-ego Kyle MacLachlan for Frodo, but replaces him halfway through the shoot with a dwarf on a tricycle. Gets fired.
TIM BURTON
Burton's "re-imagining" of Ralph Bakshi's 1978 "animated spectacular" stars Johnny Depp as Frodo, but concentrates on his early, pre-Ring days as a troubled, alienated young hobbit in The Shire. Danny Elfman's score wins an Oscar. Despite sounding exactly the same as his last one.
STANLEY KUBRICK
Kubrick secretly worked on "LOTR" for 30 years, but could never decide on what shade of grey, technically, Gandalf the Grey was.
OLIVER STONE
Stone outlines his plan to use the events of "LOTR" as an allegory for 20th century America. The Dark Lord Sauron is Lyndon Johnson. Boromir is Nixon - attracted to use power for good, but ultimately seduced by it. Tolkien purists balk at the changes. Stone says it's his goddamn story and he'll not be gagged by "a bunch of ****ing cryptofascist ***gots". Quits the project.
DAVID CRONENBERG
Cronenberg's announcement that he's going to focus on the sexual nature of the relationship between Frodo and his servant Sam - including some highly unconventional uses for The One Ring - is greeted coldly by the Tolkien estate.
MICHAEL BAY
Bay ditches the character of Frodo after Jerry Bruckheimer claims that "no one's interested in a pansy 4ft dwarf, or whatever the hell he is". Instead of trying to get rid of the Ring, he has Gandalf (Ben Affleck) embrace its power in the first five minutes, spending the next two hours blowing people up in a series of dazzling yet soulless effects shots.
MIKE LEIGH
After spending four months getting his all-British cast to create back stories for their characters, Leigh reveals that Frodo's (David Thewlis) quest will be to find his real mum (Brenda Blethyn), not some stupid little ring.