Daily Archives: January 7, 2003

Jan 7 2003

Two Towers Reviewed by Salon

This is perhaps the most complete and best review of the best movie of the year.

The fact that the relative economy of his budget (and when the average action movie costs nearly $100 million, $270 million for three three-hour movies is bupkiss) compelled him to keep focused. But I think something else is at work, not only Jackson’s sense of duty to the legions of Tolkien admirers but his own love for the material. It may even be that the story of heroes who have put themselves at the service of a cause has inspired him to put himself at the service of the material.

I couldn’t have said it better.

Stay tuned for my review.

Jan 7 2003

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Peter Jackson has done it again. Step aside George Lucas. Steven Spielberg, your time has past. There’s a new sheriff in town, and he’s not taking any prisoners.

I sat in the theater in London wondering if the magic could continue. [[The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring]] was one of the purest joys I’ve experienced while watching a movie. Could part two possibly keep that feeling alive?

The answer is a resounding **yes**!

I’ve been [[Let’s Party]] the progress of this little project for over four years now. Like many other fans of the books, I had some serious trepidation about the possibility of the saga being turned into a series of movies. Thank goodness the task fell to the super genius Peter Jackson.

There’s one perfect sequence after another in this movie:

    * Gandalf’s fall and fight with the Balrog
    * The Dead Marshes
    * Fangorn Forest
    * Gollum
    * The Ents
    * Helm’s Deep

And just like the previous movie, there are some large departures from the text. The amazing thing that PJ has done (along with his entire writing team) is keep the spirit and themes of the books in tact.

[[Roger Ebert]] said in his review that he wishes that the whimsey of the books could have been represented instead of turning the story into an action movie. I have to respectfully, but strongly, disagree. I think he’s confusing **The Hobbit*’ with ‘*The Lord of the Rings**. Also, most of the movie is dedicated to character develpment. There’s very little action until the climax, and even then, the movie ends on a character note, not action.

He cites as an example the big battle at the end of the movie, **Helm’s Deep**, lasts for a huge portion of the movie while it’s only a very short portion of the book. I went back and looked at my copy, and in a sense he’s right. It’s only 26 pages in a 400 page book. However, if you look at the timeline in the appendices, the whole book covers only 6 days, and Helm’s Deep takes 3 of them!

Also, there’s some confusion about the length of the battle. It’s only 15 minutes of screen time.