Muppet wrote:Strangely I wasn't a LOTR film fan at all. I saw the first and got bored, then walked out of the second one bored, then didn't bother with the third! I liked the stage musical version though!
Heretic!! Travesty! You're making The Great God of Filmland cry!
I was lucky enough to see the stage musical before it closed, but I couldn't really enjoy it because the acting was so appallingly bad (Saruman was absolutely terrible - much more spoilt child than all-powerful wizard).
But anyway - I watched The Two Towers a couple of nights ago. Originally, it was my favourite of the trilogy. Now, I kinda wonder why. The only piece of genius that comes close to Moria was Helm's Deep. But even that doesn't match up to the feeling of unknown doom that I felt in Moria (*shivers* I was sooooo tense when Gandalf read aloud from Balin's diary thing - "The ground shakes. Drums, in the deep . . . we cannot get out. We cannot get out. They are coming . . .")
There was a moment that did represent a different type of shining cinema genius, though. The scene in which Gandalf comes back is one of my all-time favourites. The way he says "You are tracking the footsteps of two young hobbits" etc. It could be Gandalf. It could be Saruman. His voice is vibrating in a weird way. Then suddenly, he's there, all white and shiney! (Yes, I have a bit of a thing for Gandalf. In another world, he is my grandfather).
Then there is the brilliant work of Andy Serkis (is that right?) who played Gollum. What a fantastic job he did! Quite liked Gimli and Legolas in this one too. Trees were a tad useless, as was Theoden (pah, the only reason he was at the front of the stampede at the end was so that he could escape . . .) Then there's Helm's Deep, I think my favourite battle sequence out of all three films (does anyone else want to
be Legolas as he surfs down those stairs on an orc shield, simultaneously letting off arrows, or is it just me?)
So yes . . . a relatively short review for such a long film. It did have a similar effect on me to the first one, though, in that I looked at my watch afterwards and thought 'Wait . . . I've been here three hours?! How did that happen?! Next - The Return of the King. I remember it as my least favourite out of the three (the end goes on for faaaaaar too long, and the battle of Minas Tirith is just a little
too big in the way of scale for my liking). But then again, my favourite has now changed from the second to the first, so who knows what might happen?
"I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it."
Pratchett.
im looking forward to the new Star Trek Film 
