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Review: The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers
Hey I got a ticket to go see The Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers tonight and I will right a review of it post haste.
Can't wait to see Golem in action.
Lord of the Rings The Two Towers was so damn cool.
The movie is a lot faster than the first one and moves at a pretty fast pace throughout the entire movie. Everything was established in the first move so this just picked up the ball and ran with it. The acting is really tight and several actors really came into their own in this move. Such as Samwise was really improved over the first move around the "Sam the Brave" sequence. Alt of the story was told through flashbacks and dreams and that is a weird way of telling the story but this is not a normal movie. The really action packed battle sequances just blow away anything out of ILM and it a true testament to Wetta Digital who was basically a start up SFX company. They created these huge animated battles where you really can't tell what is CG and what was shot with actors. I MAKE 3d animation and I couldn't tell what was stunt people and what was animated. The Tree Imps, Dragons and Wargs we so damn cool I almost wet myself.
The Story really wasn't for kids and had some hard to follow dialogs and there were some anoying kids behind me who would ask their mom every 2 minutes what was said or what was going on. I swear these kids were probably brought up with a VCR and so they think it is OK to pester their mom durring a movie.
The music was a really good score and it really added an emotional tone to the movie. It actually was more memorable than the score on Star Wars Attack of the Clones.
OK but what about Golem? I think Golem should be nominated for best actor. Wow.. he is an entire CG creation who was animated by a lot of motion capture with animation on top of it and the suit actor was also the voice actor. Golem was totally empathetic and after a couple moments you really felt for the guy. People in the audience moaned and gasp and really sympathized with him and the internal dual personality arguments are worth the price of admission right there.
Golem atones for the crimes of Jar Jar Binks.. BIG TIME
I really would like to see George Lucas watching this movie just to see this New Zeelander come out of left field and totally make all his efforts on Star Wars Episode 1 and 2 look pale in comparison.
Also Gandalf was brilliant and had one of the coolest fights in movie history. The actor who plays him will go down in history as the first openly gay actor to kick much ass as an action hero and get an action figure made out of him. Name me one other out of the closet actor or actress who has their own action figures? He also got one from playing Magneto in X-Men.
Will I see this move several more times before it is out on DVD? You bet! Will I keep reading the book. Yup. Will some one like this movie if they didn't like the first one? Nope. Should the Academy Award deserve a kick in the teeth if they don't give Peter Jackson an Oscar for this movie? Yes and I am the one to do it my precious.
Jake at December 18, 2002 
Reviews
Comments
Oh I'm getting ready to go see it now!
Posted by: Judy at December 18, 2002 7:50 PM
I've already seen it twice (a midnight showing, then again yesterday afternoon with coworkers).
You're right, Golum/Smeagul being CG was more real and better acted then many actual, live, actors could ever pull off (thinking specifically of the actor who played Anakin in Star Wars Episode II) Here was a computer animation that, even though he is evil, I started to pitty, just the same as Frodo did.
The movie wasn't perfect, it suffers a little from being the middle act, and for some reason Rohan just didn't seem all that believable to me. I expected the kingdom to feel a little bigger, I pictured Edoras having farms dotting the land outside the city walls. For being the capital, it seemed to have fewer residents then Bree.
Back to good stuff though...
Jacob, have you read The Silmarillion? Hopefully you have, because I think it gives you even more a sense of how incredable that battle was: Olorin, considered wisest of all the Maiar, w3as fighting the most evil and wicked of Melkor Morgoth's creations.
And I'm glad you pointed out that Sir Ian McKellen is gay. I've been volenteering with a gay rights group, speaking to high school students about gay issues. And every time we read the comment on the feedback sheet we give then, there is at least one kid who says "now I see that just cause you're gay, don't mean you're a sissy" Even now, a lot of people still think that, and I'm glad Sir Ian can shatter that stereotype. Hopefully in another decade or two, it won't even be worth pointing out.
Posted by: Jamison at December 19, 2002 9:07 AM
No I haven't read The Silmarillion I am still working on the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. I have never finished the Lord of the rings and have not read the Hobbit since I was 6.
Posted by: Jake at December 19, 2002 10:12 AM
JEEBUS JAMISON! that was one long post! you are a true fan of this saga! Hey I am glad you didnt get laid-off. I am just waiting my DAMN SELF! I have never really read these books but I have a friend who has studied them (a little too much i think) and it is like having a tolkien dictionary around so if i ask a question he can always provide me with an answer. I like your page by the way.
Posted by: pete at December 19, 2002 10:29 AM
Pete,
Thanks, and yup, I'm one of those Lord of the Rings geeks. A friend said he wanted to get the Fellowship DVD set with the bookends, but he forgot what they were called, and that he was sure I knew (I said they were the Argonath, statues of Elendil and Isildur that warn travllers on the Anduin of the Rauros. And that was just off the top of my head)
I even understood one of the Elvish lines in the Two Towers that they didn't bother subtitling (Aragorn thanked his horse)
Posted by: Jamison at December 19, 2002 11:56 AM
Well Peter, Jamison is one of those rare employed webdesigners so they tend to have good looking Blogs.
Posted by: Jake at December 19, 2002 12:09 PM
Just dont start singing Led Zeppelin....heh
Posted by: pete at December 19, 2002 1:03 PM
You'd think the unemployed ones would have better ones, with all the extra time. But it doesn't seem to work out that way.
Posted by: Jamison at December 19, 2002 5:28 PM
HAVE A PIC OF GOLEM??? plez send me one!!
Posted by: Tina at December 28, 2002 8:19 PM
Go see the movie. and NO AOL TALK real english please
Posted by: Jake at December 28, 2002 11:53 PM
I have seen the movie! I want a picture of him because he's cool loking!
Posted by: Tina at December 29, 2002 9:12 AM
brilliant movie, ian mckellan is gay??
Posted by: trina at May 8, 2003 12:52 AM
Yes he is. and he is not ashamed of it one bit. Nor should he be in my mind. But
he is hardly a stereotype and he does not let it box him in as a gay actor. He
is a very tallented actor who just happens to be gay.
Posted by: Jake at May 8, 2003 1:01 AM
GOD DAM IT PEOPLE!, ITS JUS A MOVIE!Y R U THAT OBSESSED WITH A MOVIE… i mean i liked the movie BUT JUS SUM WORDS OF ADVICE… get over it!
Posted by: Penza at December 25, 2003 8:11 PM
You do know that it was a book first right?
Also you might want to learn a bit more about the English language before you try to post again.
Posted by: Jake at December 25, 2003 10:43 PM
nar im rite...
Posted by: fuk-nerds at December 27, 2003 11:13 PM
No you are an ass who can not spell.
Posted by: Jake at December 28, 2003 10:11 AM
