Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Saw the movie on opening night. It is as good as the first one which I really enjoyed.

Frodo and Sam hang around with Gollum; Merri and Pippin ride a talking tree; Gandalf has traded in his gray robes for white ones; Gimli has the best one-liners; and while Aragorn has top billing as the hero in this movie, Legolas is the one with the skills -- he mounts a galloping horse with real style. And the final battle is truly epic!

This weekend, take a break from last-minute Christmas shopping and enjoy this amazing movie.

There are 10 kinds of people in this world; those that understand binary and those that don't.

There are 11 kinds of people in this workd, those who can count and those who don't understand binary.

I finished re-reading the entire Trilogy a few months back--motivated by last December's movie release.

If you haven't re-read (or read for the first time) the Trilogy, I highly recommend it.

Can't wait to catch this one in the theaters...

The Two Towers is better than the first one. It is seamlessly composited, and the use of Massive worked superbly for those huge battles.

A friend and I saw it Friday and it is a bit longer than the first one.

In theater date for Return of The King, is December 17, 2003.

You should read the books, including The Silmarilion to gain a full understanding. It makes it much more enjoyable.

i haven't yet seen orthanc and minas morgul (the two towers ), but plan to soon. i am probably the biggest tolkien fan in this forum. i have read the hobbit (3 times), lotr (3 times), the silmarillion (2 times), unfinished tales of midle earth and numenor, the history of middle earth, roverandom, farmer giles of ham, and sir gawain and the green knight.

read the books! ...and watch the movies!

Last I checked it was suppost to be Orthanc and Minus Morgal

But not that I care!

Hi all,
newbie here.I'm 41 now and can't even count the times I've read the five books (Hobbit,Trilogy,Sil),been reading them since 7th grade.Still pick'em up every couple of years.My wife got me a great hardcover set because I was wearing my paperback collection out(unfortunately
the Sil wasn't in there).
The Fellowship movie was the best I've seen yet.
Don't know if you've ever seen the animated version in the late 70's or early 80's.Not bad but tried to compress too much story in too little time.As long as they stick to a long movie per book ,this could make one heck of a DVD collection in a few years! I'm psyched!Think I'll punch up Smokey Mountain Knifeworks and order some swords(they have the collection of them)!

Nice talkin' to you all,
Kevin in Pa

I would hope to be in the contest for biggest Tolkien fan here.
Apart from seeing TTT twice already, I will be seeing it again on Monday and I have tickets for The Odeon Leicester Square on the 30th (this will be my 2nd viewing there because I was at the first showing on 18Dec).
I saw the FOTR seven times at the cinema (including three times at The Odeon and once in Vegas) I have R1 versions of FOTR and FOTR-Extended DVDs and upgraded my loud speakers to experience them better.

On the books side, I read them about once a year, I have the CD versions of The Silmarillion and the unabridged Lord of The Rings as well as both versions of Karen's Map book. A first edition of Carpenter's Tolkien Biography. A first edition of Tyler's Companion. I have serveral of the individual HOME Series books in black hardback. I have the framed map on my bedroom wall, and a few other reference books. Apart from having The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit in German as well, I have the three de luxe HOME volumes, and the LoTR's in the same style (these are from the first print run of 1000) I have the Silmarillion on order in this style too.

It is my current aim to see ROTK in Wellington (then Christmas in the Bay of Islands)

http://theonering.net is set open as my homepage in IE.

My Grandfather was lectured by Tolkien at Oxford and has some rather impressive copies of his books himself.

I have spent more on Tolkien related stuff then flashlights (unless you count the cost of my trip to Vegas)

When I was at school, I submitted a very long poem about the Battle of Five Armies for a project. I had to read it in front of the whole school.

These films are like a dream come true for me!

Al

I hope that you are all correct that The Two Towers is better- I thought it was mediocre (compared to The Fellowship) at best. But the theater was miserably cold and the sound system sounded like it was being played over a three dollar AM radio, so that may have tainted my experience.

There were about six scenes that I thought were excellent, a couple I thought were patently ludicrous and the rest merely OK.

But then, while I enjoyed my theater experience with The Fellowship of the Ring, I thought the movie was merely good, and the acting merely adequate, in most cases. (I thought Ian Holm as Bilbo was the only "perfect" performance).

Then when the DVD came out, and I got to watch it with my nose a foot away from a 19 inch computer monitor and hear it through headphones, I thought it was an absoloutely superb movie in every way.

And when the "Platinum Extended version" came out a couple of months ago, the added 30 minutes really made it even more outstanding.

A couple of my friends sent me the documentary book by Brian Sibley on the Making of the Lord of the Rings Movie Trilogy, and after reading that, I'm amazed that it didn't cost three times as much money, take three times as many people and take fifteen years to make.

I can't top Al as a fan, but I read the Trilogy at least once a year, and have read all of the published stuff (including the things his son Christopher published) at least once. (And I named my first completely handmade knife "Sting" and I don't mean after Gordon Sumner)

So, I'm hoping that I like the Two Towers better when I see it again, and will be anxiously awaiting Return of a King in a year.

For now, though, I am anxiously awaiting Robert Jordan's Crossroads of Twilight book, due out in another couple of weeks. I'd love to see them make a movie out of the Wheel of Time series.... That would make making the Lord of the Rings trilogy look like a Sunday Picnic.

Originally posted by Silviron:
So, I'm hoping that I like the Two Towers better when I see it again...

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I think you will. I just came home from my first viewing, and the theater experience was PERFECT. Excellent seats, excellent sound and picture. I saw LOTR in this same theater and was quite upset when I watched it again on my Home Theater system. There are simply too many details that can't be made out on a small screen, no matter how fantastic the screen may be. Plus the sound on the DVD was not up to the quality of the theater (and honestly, my home sound is typically far superior to most theaters I've been in).

So my suggestion, I guess, is to see it again - in a GOOD theater!

Well, I saw FotR in a "State of the Art" theater up in the "Big City"- so to speak. and I still prefer watching it on my home computer.

But I did see TTT here in "Podunksville" on a small screen with cheap projection and sound equipment.... actually, I was surprised it opened here already; we usually don't get things until 2-3 weeks after they hit the screens in the big cities. But what with snowy, icy roads AND jury duty I couldn't go up to Albuquerque as I had planned for Christmas shopping and TTT viewing.

I didn't get to go to the theater to see FOTR, as I wanted to, last year. I was recovering from Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery. So I bought LOTR theatrical DVD release, sight unseen. I watch my movies (VHS and DVD) on a puny 13 inch tv/vcr combo. I was extremely pleased with it, and learned via that, that the extended version was due out. So I got that too.

I will do the same with TTT, so I will end up with 2 complete sets of the films.

My friend and I have made plans to see ROTK next December, allowing for weather and medical (both of us have medical problems).

These movies are Lord of The Rings, done right (finally!!).

The Lord of the Rings Films are about a demanding on a surround sound system as it gets right now. I try to see movies in dts where-ever possible. Like I said, I upgraded my home speakers with a new pair of rears.

One of the times I saw FOTR was in an IMAX theatre (2nd largest screen in Europe) and it rocked.

I hear that ROTK may be put through the IMAX DMR which would be fantastic.

Al

just back from seeing it myself, in a relatively new theater with good sound and picture and seats.

It didn't change my life, but I found it throughly enjoyable and a great movie.

The CG work is really flawless. I expect each movie I see with totally CG characters to get better and better as time goes on, and this one did not disappoint.

Personally I think that Golum looked almost too human.

They did take more liberty with the story in this one than the last (at least it felt that way) but I didn't find any of it objectionable. I believe that they shortened a few of the exceptionally long sections of the book to good affect without detracting from the overall cohesiveness of the story.

I recommend seeing it, if you are at all interested in the book or the mythos you will definitely enjoy the movie!

Only problem was that there weren't any flashlights in it...

Oh yeah! I just got home from seeing the Two Towers. It was at least as good as the first one!
Maybe better. I especially liked the battle scene at helm's deep. It was awesome! Although you have to wonder how unarmored horses can charge through
a bunch of angry orcs wielding sharp swords, and pikes, and not get hurt. But hey, you can't have it all!

I personally think it is the best movie that I have seen since FOTR, and that is the best movie I have ever seen!

Count me in as a huge LOTR fan too and I thought both movies were absolutely amazing. I can't wait to see TTT again.

For all of you that don't have the FOTR special extended version of the DVD that came out in November, I highly recommend purchasing it. I have many special edition DVDs, and this one is by far the finest. The extended version of the film is great and the all the "making of" and documentaries are awesome.

Bucky

oops, shows you how forgetfull i am!

i also forgot to add smith of wooten major and the adventures of tom bombadil and other poems by tolkien.

hmmm. maybe i'm not the biggest fan...but i am at least one of the largest fans. consider i am only 17, i still have some time to catch up to al!

i also downloaded a story written by someone called isildur, it was extremely good, and seemed quite accurate. it basically detailed the coming of the numenoreans to the death of isuldur.

James S,

As a consolation prize you will be happy to know that plenty in the audience had flashlights. Sort of makes up for the lack of them in the movies.

I enjoyed the movie on several fronts. First is that I got to use my E2e to find a prime middle seat in the (very dark) back row. It's kinda cool to see people squint a little (that was not intentional; honest). Second is that I discovered a few in the audience had their EDC and were not shy to use them to light up the screen (before the show). In fact a couple of them looked very much like KL1 or KL3 (judging by beam and color).

Third and most important is the movie itself. What a ride. Having read the books (many times) I have enjoyed them time and again and always as if reading them for the first time. Nevertheless it is quite interesting to see the story from another fan's perspective and interpretation. The Golum characterization was particularly touching. The first few images of Golum were a bit of a surprise but then things started falling into place with his features and expressions.

LOTR was the first epic fantasy novel I ever read. Prior to that I had read many short stories including of course the 1001 nights (arabian nights) and a translated indian work of fantasy the title of which now evades me. I have read many epic fantasy novels since then (and I mean many) but none of them hold the appeal and depth of characterization not to mention the literary value that LOTR holds.

And yes if you do not have the extended edition of FOTR on DVD go get it now. If there had been a six hour edition of it I would have bought it and surely enjoyed it equally. This is a storyline that should not be rushed.

Go see TTT. I enjoyed it immensely.

Cheers.

bottom line...tolkien was a genious...the best ever.

he created a universe! no other writer has gone to such depths to create an entire history! he created myths, histories, facts, stories, everything. when i think about it, it is truly awesome what he has done. he created an entire existance from creation...this has only been done in the bible, while i hold the bible to be completely true, i often find myself wondering if tolkiens universe is true also.

anyone else ever think that he really did find the book of westmarch, and just said he made it up so as not to be put in an looneybin?