Posted on 12/17/2002 7:32:02 AM PST by HairOfTheDog
Come on! Come in! -if you would like to have some seedcakes and a pint and relax a while. (If it is a special occasion, we still have a few bottles of the old wineyards left!)
Our first thread ( New Zealander builds Hobbit hole ) reached 4,100 posts, and we thought that was big. Our second thread (The New Hobbit Hole ) held us for over 48,000 posts, and we loved it dearly. We talked about moving to a new thread for the last 38,000 posts, but we are really slow to muster! Finally, the time has come. Tomorrow (at 12:01 am, to be precise!) The Two Towers comes out, and we start a new chapter.
First things first - BREAKFAST! Let's have some pancakes, waffles and french toast, along with bacon, eggs and sausage. Coffee is on and ready to go. I baked up some fresh buttermilk biscuits so make a sandwich if you are so inclined. :)
OK, now that that's out of the way.
Corin - I'm so glad you got a chance to see the movie. It's unfortunate that some people have zero courtesy for others. I didn't have that experience fortunately, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that both times I've seen it, the audience consisted of LoTR fans (sneak peek and first show on Wednesday). But that only means that you will have to see it again! ;)
Sam Cree - Wasn't it great? It must have been for you to be up at 2AM posting about it. LOL!! I have my free pass from the purchase of the Extended Edition still unused, so if you and the Mrs. go again, please let me know and I'd like to tag along.
Valin - It is a pity that folks won't take the time to read the books. If they only knew what they were missing!
Hair - everyone disappeared last night and I assume you all went to the chat room. Sadly, I realized too late that with the recovery, I had lost all of my bookmarks and I couldn't, for the life of me, recall the URL for the Yahoo Hobbit Hole. So, I finished another set of Windows Updates and went to bed.
My home PC is almost ready. I still have another 2 hours of Windows updates to finish tonight and then I have to download Norton Systemworks and Firewall. After all that, I should be safe from any future unwelcome "guests" in my hard drive.
Remember that as of late, we have been infiltrated by misplaced DUer's and my gut tells me that those are the people doing it (or probably the same person under different screen names).
the Admin Moderator has been really above par in ZOTTING their threads, but until they get bored of haunting FR, I have little hope of it stopping.
...Remind me never to get on your bad side. :)
There is still hope!
Is that sort of like: "There's still good in this world worth fighting for."?
Also known as faulty 'Towers'
Second film in 'Rings' trilogy is on shaky ground as it fails to stand aloneBY DANIEL NEMAN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Dec 19, 2002The greatest moments in the greatest epics are the quiet ones.
Peter O'Toole's silent determination in "Lawrence of Arabia," Alec Guinness' stoic defiance in "The Bridge on the River Kwai," the scene of the injured bodies at the train station in "Gone With the Wind."
But "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" does not have any quiet moments. Even the few scenes without a battle are played large, with exaggerated acting, melodramatic writing and swelling strings.
At nearly three hours in length, that can become exhausting.
The second movie of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Two Towers" suffers equally as much from this position. Because it is the middle movie, it has no beginning and no end. When it starts, it is as if we have walked into a theater long after the movie started, and when it ends it is as if we left early.
There is no introduction, no resolution. The three groups of friends we follow throughout the course of the movie never even meet one another. They might as well be in three separate movies - which is actually not a bad idea.
Director Peter Jackson and the four writers take the position that the viewers of this film will all be intimately familiar with the last one, that they have watched it several times and probably own a copy of the video. Not only is that attitude arrogant and unwise, it also leads to one of the film's many fatal flaws.
The casual, nonobsessed viewer who saw the first film only once and read the book 30 years ago will spend the first half-hour trying to figure out what the heck is going on. Without an introduction to the characters, without a way of setting the scene, we are left to decipher the action on our own.
It does not help that at the beginning, we are led to believe that a group of good guys is being chased by a group of bad guys, but it turns out that the good guys are in fact chasing the bad.
The first good guys are hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin). Frodo possesses an evil ring that he is traveling a great distance to destroy. The ring's evil power is taking over Frodo's mind, while Sam does his best Sancho Panza imitation.
The second group of good guys are a man, Aragon (Viggo Mortensen), an elf, Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and a dwarf, Gimli (John Rhys-Davies). These three are warriors who go around like freelance forces of good, slaying evildoers wherever they find them.
The last good guys are two hobbits, Merry and Pippin (Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd), who contribute almost nothing to the story. They have been kidnapped by a group of bad guys who may be orcs, but possibly are not.
The generally indistinguishable bad guys are joining together to begin the war to end all wars, a war that will bring darkness to all of Middle-earth. After an awful lot of skirmishes, the movie ends with the first big battle of this war. This battle is also the first battle that is truly boring, and it is naturally also the longest, with the cheesiest special effects.
Twice in this battle, things look grim for our heroes (that would be the ones in the second group). But just before they are almost wiped out each time, they are saved by reinforcements or the cavalry. The first time, an army of elves comes to the rescue. The second time, I haven't got a clue who comes to save them.
And these are not the only times the heroes are saved by the cavalry. In many of the battles, help comes from an unexpected source. That seems to be the battle plan of the good guys - sit back and wait until someone comes to rescue you.
Every now and then, characters from the first movie show up in cameos to remind us that they are still around. Sometimes, some of these characters are narrating, sometimes it is other characters. Sometimes, we have no idea who is narrating, or why.
"The Two Towers" is a movie made entirely without nuance. The acting is far too broad, the writing too simplistic, the direction too unrefined. But at least this time the editing is not as frantic as it was in the last movie. Much of the film is even coherent, given the limitations of the storytelling and the way it begins midstream.
Fans will flock to the picture, of course, but even they are likely to be dissatisfied by the lack of an ending. The good news is there is only one more of these films to go.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact Daniel Neman at (804) 649-6408 or dneman@timesdispatch.com
I just fired off this letter to the editor:
Dear Editor,
Most days I just don’t bother reading the movie reviews by Daniel Neman. I find my Neman Review Rating System saves time and effort. In my system the number of stars given by Mr. Neman are inversely proportionate to the actual quality of the movie, i.e. the fewer stars given by Mr. Neman, the better the film must be.
But after viewing The Two Towers last evening, I decided to go ahead and read Mr. Neman’s faulty review. Silly me.
Admittedly, I’ve been a Tolkien fan for nearly 30 years. So, unlike Mr. Neman, my knowledge of hobbits and Middle-Earth didn’t come from a cover story in People Magazine.
I actually don’t have a problem if Mr. Neman doesn’t like the movie. But the Times-Dispatch should be concerned that he doesn’t understand it. My 13-year-old is available to explain if need be.
Yes, it’s the middle part of the story. No, fans are not disappointed. We know the story doesn’t end there.
What is perhaps most amazing is Mr. Neman’s complete lack of attention to the cinematic accomplishments of the movie. The cinematography, the sound, and the music are excellent. And the computer imaging, particularly of the creature Gollum, is simply amazing. Then again, Mr. Neman probably actually liked Jar Jar Binks.
No, the movie isn’t perfect. But it’s an outstanding adaptation of an incredible work of literature. Mr. Neman should read the books.
I can tell he hasn’t read them (or at least hasn’t understood them), by the fact that he said, “The second time, I haven't got a clue who comes to save them.”
Apparently, Mr. Neman is missing several clues.
I drive by the place on my way to work. It can't be fixed. The whole center of the building is gone.
They have several area locations that are less convenient. They've opened one of those for parents to bring kids today. We haven't talked about what we'll do after Christmas.
I've done hinted to the wife that I'll need to do that.
Me neither, but when a lovely young lady asks for help....well, who am I to tell her no?
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