#
#
For those who still care, there's spoilage below.
#
#
#
#





> Arwen: Twice, LotR fans dreaded Arwen's
>expanded role in the movies. For the second
>time, there is nothing to worry about. Her
>involvement in Two Towers is exactly right.

I've never understood why so many people hate Liv Tyler so much. Honestly, I think if I have to choose between "Tom Bombadil" or "Liv Tyler" I choose Liv every time. Likewise, if I gotta choose between "Icky, nasty big-ass spider scene delayed by one movie" and "more Liv Tyler", well, that's a harder choice, but I can get behind the prospect of more Liv Tyler, especially the way it was handled. Although I'm not ENTIRELY certain what the point of expanding her roll in this movie was except maybe to say "There's too many long haired sweaty guys in this movie. We need more Liv Tyler." And in that case, I can certainly get behind that.

> Eowyn: What screen time she has is also
>exactly right. There's a pregnant pause of
>sorts in a moment when Eowyn is glad to see
>Aragorn's safe return: much is said without
>words. Nice.

She needed to be hotter, though. I mean, she was pretty hot. But not Liv Tyler hot. See, if I'm Aragorn, and I have to choose between:

A) A pretty hot human woman, or

B) An amazingly hot elf chick who is NEVER EVER GOING TO AGE and will ALWAYS BE PRECICELY THIS HOT...

...I think I have to choose B.


> Faramir: My biggest problem. Faramir was fine
>in his early scenes. I particularly liked the
>scene at the pool (although it irked me that he
>called this thing in the middle of the
>wilderness "The Forbidden Pool" without any
>mention of *why*). But once he finds out about
>the ring, the handling of the character is all
>wrong. Faramir's place in the story is as a
>counterpoint to Boromir. That counterpoint is
>missing and meaningless as his character is
>filmed. Worse still, his sudden change of heart
>has no discernible source. I guess the sum of
>my problem with Faramir is that I could never
>get inside his head.

The way he comes off in the movie is as a skinnier, wimpier Boromir. Then, suddenly, he changes his mind. Yay.


> Wormtongue: Rocking. His slightly expanded
>role works beautifully.

How was it slightly expanded?

> Legolas: He didn't walk on snow in Fellowship,
>but here he mounts a horse in a way most
>becoming of a Tolkien elf.

Yeah. And somehow he came off as much less interested in frenching Aragorn as he did in the first movie. Legolas was probably my favorite character in this movie.

> Gimli: The script walks close to the edge in
>making Gimli responsible for so much comic
>relief. But the vast majority of it works.
>Just two moments are unsuccessful: a gag with
>chain mail is neutral. And prolonging an
>initially hilarious height gag on the walls of
>Helm's Deep ends up breaking tension.

Yeah. The first time was HILARIOUS. After that, I was just thinking "Ok, that was a funny gag ONCE. Now let's get on with the SERIOUS BATTLE, thanks!"

> Gandalf: What a thrill his first scene is!
>And although I didn't appreciate the expedited
>handling of the Ents, the expedited handling of
>Gandalf's return is right on the money.

Except when he leads an cavalry charge RIGHT INTO a massed formation of pikemen. Uh. Ok. I mean, sure, HE'S a wizard riding a magical horse and all, but those billion other Rohirrim *aren't*. And anyway, we're talking about different scenes. The first Gandalf scene was ruling. I guess I'm talking about his SECOND return. ;-) Despite that one glaring bit of stupidity, that scene rocked though. Although how did Eomer's contingent of Rohirrim grow from the dozen we see initially into an entire fricking army?

-- Dave