LOTR: TTT Discussion only... likes and dislikes *SPOILERS*

[Storm]

Things I liked (in any particular order)
1.) Pacing of the movie was a lot better than FoTR
2.) Gollum/Smeagol- I thought the look of the character and dialogue was really good.
3.) I liked the way they explained what happened to Gandalf
4.) Theoden and Eowyn were good characters
5.) I thought Grima was pretty good.
6.) Ents

Dislikes(in any particular order)
1.) Why did they need to change Faramir? Not necessarily his character but I would have preferred the scenes from the book in their waterfall hide-out and the story the hobbits would tell Faramir over what they did in Osigaloth?(sp?) or were they in Gondor in the movie? Hmm I guess Osigaloth since you didnt see the big tower forget the name
2.) Is just me that thought all the elves apparently get killed at the battle of Helms Deep?
3.) Pretty random how the elves came out of nowhere I guess they cut some stuff with Elrond


Random stuff
1.) Couldnt believe they put dwarf tossing in there....

Most likely the extended dvd will add more breadth and explanation just like fotr extended

 

[HappyPuppy]

Another TTT thread. There are others, you know.

 

[Storm]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
Another TTT thread. There are others, you know.

Well all of the others are bogged down of when ppl or going to see or that they have just seen it.

 

[bentwookie]

Most likely the extended dvd will add more breadth and explanation just like fotr extended

peter jackson is worse than lucas...

 

[ScottyB]

I about had an orgasim when the trees started fighting.

 

[BHeemsoth]

Originally posted by: ScottyB
I about had an orgasim when the trees started fighting.

my god

we're not even gonna go there

 

[A5]

Originally posted by: bentwookie
Most likely the extended dvd will add more breadth and explanation just like fotr extended

peter jackson is worse than lucas...

I don't think so...I was watching the commentaries for Episode 2, and the way they talked, it was like they avoided exposition if at all possible. TTT is just too big of a story to be tackled well in a 3 hour movie.

 

[A5]

Originally posted by: rpbri2886

Originally posted by: ScottyB
I about had an orgasim when the trees started fighting.

my god

we're not even gonna go there

The Ents raping Isengard was the best scene in the movie...the look on Saruman's face during the whole thing was PRICELESS.

My major beefs are:
a) They left out Huorns/not enough Ents at the Entmoot
b) The whole "going to Osgiliath" thing didn't work too well
c) Faramir being crazy up until the very end

 

[Wallydraigle]

Yeah, I don't know what they were thinking with Faramir. What's up with that? People who have never read the book are going to get bad vibes from him for the rest of the story now, if they even cut him in anymore.

I was actually kind of disappointed by the way they portrayed the ents. They just seemed kind of goofy to me. The battle at Isengard was pretty cool, but they should have made it longer. It's a big deal.

The elves just sort of showed up for the battle? K, maybe there's some point to that, but of there is I missed it. I mean, they just appeared there. And having the huorns show up for the battle would have been awesome.

The whole Osgiliath scene aside, the part where Frodo offers the ring to the Nazgul just didn't work for me. And then when the Nazgul knows the ring is right there, and pretty much unprotected, he just flies off?

Something else that really bugged me, is that it seemed like they were trying to turn Gollum into another, god help us all... Jar Jar Binks. Every time he opened his mouth half the theatre was rolling on the floor.


I really liked the Balrog scene. That was just awesome.

The crossing of the marshes was cool, but for someone who never read the book the part where Gollum talks about following the lights and lighting little candles would be confusing because there were no lights around and it happened in broad daylight.

The scene at the Morannon was cool, if just a little ridiculous

The creature that the Nazgul lord rides on was cool.

Aragorn's little subquest thing where he falls over the cliff and has to get back was cool, if totally unnecessary. They could have not created that and been the better off.


All in all the whole thing just seemed to stretch on for me. I actually got tired of it before the battle at Helm's Deep really got started. It just seemed like they stretched out all the wrong places and rushed through the cool parts. They should have spent more time with Merry and Pippin's adventure with Fangorn, and spent less time expanding on the friction between Aragorn and Theoden that really was never there in the book. It seemed like Jackson took a lot more creative liscence this time around. I think I'll enjoy watching the DVD more because I can take a break if I get tired of sitting there.

 

[Swag1138]

From a LOTR standpoint, all I liked was Gollum. Everything else storywise was raped. Especially Faramir. The elves coming out of nowhere also pissed me off a tad bit, as an LOTR fan.

From a movie standpoint, I liked the whole thing. It was a very fun movie to watch, and I will probably see it another couple times. I cant get past the faramir thing, but it was pretty cool seeing the elves fight.

And is it just me, or does Peter Jackson really really hate humans? I mean, the humans came off looking like a big bunch of farking retards.

It just wasnt Lord Of The Rings to me.

 

[thomsbrain]

what's wrong with you morons? the elves didn't just "show up." they had a whole big sequence where the white elve lady is talking telepathically to the maxtrix-guy back at the other elve hideout. she is convincing him to go fight and at the end he agrees with him. so when the elves show up to fight, i fail to see how it's a big surprise. they really went out of their way to explain their presence.

i agree about changing the faramir subplot though. in the book he believes frodo while they're under the waterfall, instead of in that city. that allows faramir to serve as another indication that there is goodness in mankind. he was supposed to be the counterpoint to boromir, not just boromir-redux.

i liked gollum, but they really didn't make him menacing enough. i think they could have done a lot better if they just made him darker. his skin was way too light, and it made people not take him seriously. he looked cute instead of like the monster he is.

 

[Swag1138]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
what's wrong with you morons? the elves didn't just "show up." they had a whole big sequence where the white elve lady is talking telepathically to the maxtrix-guy back at the other elve hideout. she is convincing him to go fight and at the end he agrees with him. so when the elves show up to fight, i fail to see how it's a big surprise. they really went out of their way to explain their presence.

Yes, but where is that in the book? The elves werent even IN TTT, and they CERTAINLY didnt come to help fight. Thats where I was coming from when I said they "came out of nowhere"

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: Swag1138

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
what's wrong with you morons? the elves didn't just "show up." they had a whole big sequence where the white elve lady is talking telepathically to the maxtrix-guy back at the other elve hideout. she is convincing him to go fight and at the end he agrees with him. so when the elves show up to fight, i fail to see how it's a big surprise. they really went out of their way to explain their presence.

Yes, but where is that in the book? The elves werent even IN TTT, and they CERTAINLY didnt come to help fight. Thats where I was coming from when I said they "came out of nowhere"

oh ok. it's been about 10 years since i read it, so i guess i have an excuse for not remembering that part. how much do you want to bet jackson was like, "screw the book, i want to see some elves kick butt!" kind of like lucas and yoda fighting, where people told him it was a bad idea but he did it anyway because "the fans want this." we all know he did it cause HE wanted it.

 

[arod]

I never have read the books so we can clear that up now, but I really liked this Movie (the best or second best movie ever imo)... that said the one thing i didnt like was they really didnt show too much at the ents march on isengard... would have loved to see more. I think Peter Jackson did a great job of putting this movie together and it flowed very well. If you guys want to complain about every detail missing in teh book then these movies arent for you, This is a MOVIE not a documentary. I thought everything else was perfect and great entertainment. 99.99999999 out of 100 in my book.

 

[Wallydraigle]

Originally posted by: thomsbrain
what's wrong with you morons? the elves didn't just "show up." they had a whole big sequence where the white elve lady is talking telepathically to the maxtrix-guy back at the other elve hideout. she is convincing him to go fight and at the end he agrees with him. so when the elves show up to fight, i fail to see how it's a big surprise. they really went out of their way to explain their presence.

i agree about changing the faramir subplot though. in the book he believes frodo while they're under the waterfall, instead of in that city. that allows faramir to serve as another indication that there is goodness in mankind. he was supposed to be the counterpoint to boromir, not just boromir-redux.

i liked gollum, but they really didn't make him menacing enough. i think they could have done a lot better if they just made him darker. his skin was way too light, and it made people not take him seriously. he looked cute instead of like the monster he is.

The whole sequence of Galadriel thinking to Elrond, and then the elves appearing just came out of nowhere. It's like the ents pissed in Jackson's Wheaties or something, so rather than letting them bail out the Rohirrim, he gets the elves to do it, leaving the ents to look like the goofy, over-sized stick people they were portrayed as. It just seemed really arbitrary and pointless. It's not like the ents were cut out of the film, so there was really no point in making stuff up to fill in what they should have done anyway. It's like in the Watership down movie, when they made up that rabbit named Violet, that got snatched by the hawk and carried off, when none of it happened in the book. It's common to cut stuff out of a book to make a movie, but it's really odd when they just totally make stuff up out of the blue and shove it in whereever it doesn't fit

 

[Moonbeam]

I had a great time. Lots of fun and amazing visually.

 

[LethalWolfe]

Yes there is deviation from the book, but this isn't a LotR book-> film xfer, it's a retelling of LotR by Peter Jackson and Co. I thought the Ents were cool and Gollum needs an Oscar I think they did an excellent job w/him. I like how they made him look pitiful and a "neutral" looking in appearce (nothing overly meancing or loving). This way his inner struggle can really shine thru, and people can feel for him the same way Frodo does. If he looked like a lil' monster noone would believe his "change" into a helpful creature that could be redeemed/brought back from the dark.

My only real complaint comes w/the cinematography. If I see one more panaramic, mountainous<sp?> landscape shot and/or one more person/rider/army/animal cresting over a hilltop and into view I'm gonna throttle someone. Those shots are cool and useful, but for God's sake we don't need them used a dozen times in the same f**king movie.


Lethal

 

[neomits]

If you guys want some really cool extra stuff that'll eventually make its way to the DVD about Massive and Helms Deep go to Lordoftherings.net and they have really cool special featuers thing

 

[kami]

Here's my psuedo-review

(copy/paste from another forum i frequent)
---


I don't know where to start with this. Let me just say that I saw it twice before writing this review. I didn't want to come to any conclusions until I saw it twice since my opinions on FOTR changed so much on the second viewing (I loved it more).

I am as big of a fan as any...anyone who knows me, knows i'm that lord of the rings guy. Don't think I'm a fanboy here. I love LOTR with a passion, but I'm still critical about it. On the first viewing, the changes were very noticable since the book was fresh in my mind. I noticed the cuts they made for time reasons (oh god, bring me the extended edition!!) and I noticed a few other flaws, but when I came out it was surreal. Same thing for FOTR's first viewing. I just didn't know what to think. I loved it but I didn't know why I guess you could say.

Then tonight was the second viewing and I came out very very happy. Everything was great. From beginning to end I was captivated.

TTT is more oriented towards action than FOTR, but it's not like they downplayed the characters more. There was lots of good dialogue and character moments. The movie was crammed with them. A very pleasing balance IMO. From what I see so far, I think the movies play out like this:

FOTR - very fantastical, laid back, moderate action, setup the story and characters
TTT - Much darker, more action and less fantastical since it's so concentrated on Men. Flesh out the characters more (Gimli/Legolas/Aragorn relationship was fantastic and Frodo/Sam/Gollum relationship was just as good as the book)
ROTK - Very dark, tragic character moments, what action there is will be massive compared to what we've seen. I think a lot of it will be suspenseful (Frodo and Sam in Mordor)....just my prediction

My favorite shots of the film. These just made my jaw hit the floor:
- the final shot of Gandalf and the Balrog falling. Right from when they come out of the hole into the cavern and then the overhead shot of them hitting the water. Just incredible.
- Gandalf, Eomer, and the Rohirrim riding down the hill. The last shot right after the sun rises over the top of the hill. Stunning.
- At the end when Sam is giving his speech... one of the last shots of the Ents standing while the water rushes by. Treebeard is center in the shot, it's not one of the super-wide ones.
-The whole Black Gate sequence. Chilling.

Gollum
More than I expected. Such a great range of emotions. He was heart-breaking and vile and disgusting at the same time. Just blew my mind. He looked so good that I thought he was real at times. If he had unnatural movement/look like previous CG characters from other movies, I just wouldn't be as drawn in. Yes I knew he was CG, but it was GOOD CG. Incredible would eb a better description. The only thing that bugged me was parts where the audience was laughing at his lines - lines that weren't meant to be funny. Argh. Just drives me nuts. I want my own copy of the film so I don't have to put up with this bullshit.

Ents
I read some reviews that really trashed them but they were done extremely well. I guess the fact that they looked so close to what I imagined helped It must've been very difficult to make them not look goofy and overdone. Animation was very good, treebeard's voice was too obviously JRD but still well done. The attack on Isengard was equal to the visual splendor of Helm's Deep to me. Wow wow wow.

Warg Attack
Whoa! Really cool action scene!!!

Helm's Deep
Perfectly executed from start to finish.


Now some negatives...

I did not like the Faramir change at first, and I still don't like it. I loved Faramir in the book how he was. Still, it makes sense cinematically...I just don't like it.
The cutting bothered me sometimes, but I knew it had to be done.
Wasn't a huge fan of everyone thinking Aragorn was dead for a while. I can tolerate it, but I'd rather it not be in there.
Merry and Pippin seemed to spend 2/3 of the film on Treebeard's shoulders. Found that a little odd.

That's it for negatives for me. The rest of the movie was great!

Worth the wait! I will see this many, many times. And then watch on it on DVD many, many times!

Oh, and do I like it more than FOTR? Overall, yes I do!

5/5

 

[neomits]

The only thing that bugged me was parts where the audience was laughing at his lines - lines that weren't meant to be funny. Argh. Just drives me nuts. I want my own copy of the film so I don't have to put up with this bullshit.

OMG YES!!! I saw it the first time with very few ppl so no one laughed at this part (almost everyone there was a critic for a paper or something) and I was amazed by how awesome the performance of a CGI character was. Then I saw it last night and ppl laughed. It pissed me off so much, but after seeing it a third time my friends and I agree that it was pulled off a little weird. I mean if you even have the slight hesitation that the audience will laugh at this serious part then it needs to be worked out.

Second time seeing it is DEFINETLY way better

and yes for all the small things PJ does change he makes it all good by adding things in that weren't fully described in the books. Using trolls to open the Black Gates :Q !!! GREAT STUFF

 

[kami]

BTW, have you guys checked Rotten Tomatoes lately? (link)

Rating 98%
Reviews counted: 106
Fresh: 104 Rotten: 2

:Q

 

[ScottyB]

Originally posted by: neomits

The only thing that bugged me was parts where the audience was laughing at his lines - lines that weren't meant to be funny. Argh. Just drives me nuts. I want my own copy of the film so I don't have to put up with this bullshit.

OMG YES!!! I saw it the first time with very few ppl so no one laughed at this part (almost everyone there was a critic for a paper or something) and I was amazed by how awesome the performance of a CGI character was. Then I saw it last night and ppl laughed. It pissed me off so much, but after seeing it a third time my friends and I agree that it was pulled off a little weird. I mean if you even have the slight hesitation that the audience will laugh at this serious part then it needs to be worked out.

Second time seeing it is DEFINETLY way better

and yes for all the small things PJ does change he makes it all good by adding things in that weren't fully described in the books. Using trolls to open the Black Gates !!! GREAT STUFF

I know the theater emplyees should just slice peoples' necks if they laugh at a part they think is funny and you think is serious. I mean who do they think they are?

 

[KevinH]

The Real Story Behind Gollum


In essence, there IS a real actor behind him.

 

[Turin39789]

most everything I feel has already been said.

I can understand some of the changes jackson made in FOTR, tom bombadil would be very hard to add in, he is almost his own movie, and the love interest while bothering isnt crucial.

But some of the changes in TT i just cant grasp. I cannot see why he would change Faramir, why there couldnt be one man besides Aragorn who isnt displayed as a total moron. He also ignored the Ents too much, Leaving out the Huons, no actual forest moving in around isengard, no trees just chewing up orcs. I wanted to see the ents lay hands on the walls of isengard, and push tendrils into the rock and crush it. Not see a large tree like barbarian with big arms tear of a single support and flood the place.

Just feel like he focused on some of the wrong things, made some characters a bit too funny. Gollum made the march to mordor seem a bit too lighthearted. And i can understand a dwarf having some trouble running a long way, but they are supposed to be stolid and tireless.

I think it was a good movie, I just think it should have been called "The Two Towers: loosly based on JRR Tolkiens LOTR" .

 

[neomits]

Originally posted by: ScottyB

Originally posted by: neomits

The only thing that bugged me was parts where the audience was laughing at his lines - lines that weren't meant to be funny. Argh. Just drives me nuts. I want my own copy of the film so I don't have to put up with this bullshit.

OMG YES!!! I saw it the first time with very few ppl so no one laughed at this part (almost everyone there was a critic for a paper or something) and I was amazed by how awesome the performance of a CGI character was. Then I saw it last night and ppl laughed. It pissed me off so much, but after seeing it a third time my friends and I agree that it was pulled off a little weird. I mean if you even have the slight hesitation that the audience will laugh at this serious part then it needs to be worked out.

Second time seeing it is DEFINETLY way better

and yes for all the small things PJ does change he makes it all good by adding things in that weren't fully described in the books. Using trolls to open the Black Gates !!! GREAT STUFF

I know the theater emplyees should just slice peoples' necks if they laugh at a part they think is funny and you think is serious. I mean who do they think they are?

I meant Peter Jackson should have figured it out before hand that "hey some ppl might think this is funny when its not supposed to be" and he should go back and make it to where it can't be misinterpreted. Unless he really meant for it to be funny.

I'm not saying the people are at fault for laughing