 Ring Ping!! |
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Posted on 11/15/2003 10:37:25 PM PST by Gordian Blade
I went to my local video store to rent a video for tonight. After rejecting several titles (like Chicago) because I didn't care for the politics of the actors and/or directors, I reluctantly settled on Terminator 3. Like California reluctantly settled on Arnold I suppose.
As I was about to pay, I saw a stack of Two Towers Extended DVD sets on the counter with $28.99 price tags on them. I asked the cashier when those came out, and she said, "I think last month." So I put T3 back on the shelf and put my $28.99 plus tax down on the counter. She had some trouble getting the code into the computer to complete the transaction, but eventually she made it work and I left the store thinking, "Gee, I must have gotten the release date wrong."
I decided to make an experience of it, so I watched FoTR Ex again to prepare myself for TTT Ex. After finishing FoTR, I checked back at the Hobbit Hole to see what everyone else was saying about the new TTT Ex DVD. Nothing. Then I checked around on the net and I was right about the release date, it is supposed to be the 18th. So back to the DVD player I went for the second feature.
Having been immersed in Middle Earth for about 8 hours today, I am happy to report that it was worth the wait to hold off on buying TTT until the extended version was out. (Or not quite officially out.) In a word: WOW!
There are still a few things I'm not thrilled with in the adaptation, but it was a much more satisfying experience than the theatrical release. Here are the many plus points and few minus points in my opinion.
Plus:
1. More of Eowyn (Miranda Otto).
2. More of Gollum’s inner struggle.
3. The Boromir/Faramir/Denethor subplot gets developed.
4. The interaction between Faramir and the hobbits veers back closer to the book.
5. The Huorns make a brief but effective appearance at Helm’s Deep.
6. More quotes and scenes straight from the book, albeit sometimes not exactly at the same time or place.
7. The whole plot seems to flow better with the extra material.
Minus:
1. Warg attack / Aragorn over the cliff is still too much of a departure from the book for me.
2. Frodo going to Osgiliath and encountering a Nazgul is still too much of a departure from the book for me. 3. We still don’t see Saruman as anything other than a minion of Sauron.
Note all of the minus points above were the same in the theatrical release and it seemed to me that the extra material made them a little less objectionable.
Final thoughts: The extra material takes a movie that I thought was very good in the theater and moves it into near-great territory. Now on to Return of the King in December!
Dang! were did you find it?
Ring Ping!! |
Anyone wishing to be added to or removed from the Ring-Ping list, please don't hesitate to let me know.
That's ok (grrr) We'll just (im)patiently wait until Tuesday! ;o)
Yeah, yeah!
http://www.lordoftherings.net/trilogy/index.html
The "marathon" would be too much for me.
I have hear there's one with a funny Gollum bit right at the same spot where the MTV "Council of Elrond" spoof was at the end of Disc One.
After long and careful consideration I have decided that the only one of the four major departures from the text in The Two Towers that really, really bothers me is the deformation of Faramir's character. It was not so much the sidetrip to Osgiliath that bothered me as the abrupt negative shift that Faramir's character took right up until another abrupt shift at the end. Not only was his character badly deformed, but the character evolution seemed sudden and unconvincing. It would have been easier to digest if some inner struggle were at least visible in his behavior.
I could have done without the Aragorn "fake death" sequence but I well understood why it was added. It is tolerable because it does not deform his (or anyone else's) character and because it helps build dramatic tension, drive forward the major storyline as well as that of the development of Aragorn's character and that of his relationship with Arwen.
Yes, the Faramir character development seems too abrupt. Somehow it comes off better in the extended version. Maybe the shock has worn off.
*Movie much better overall thanks to the new additions.
*Faramir's character (who I didn't have a big deal with anyway) is developed even further, and the flashback scene really helps a lot.
*Denethor (John Noble) is amazing, and should be great in ROTK.
*Eowyn's extra scenes are very good indeed.
*There is a LOT more comic moments, and thankfully, they ALL work and work very well. I was laughing out loud during several scenes, you will love them.
*Documentaries do a very good job at explaining why changes were made and why changes were later reserved.
*Lots of new insight into how difficult this was to make. The Gollum documentary springs to mind...
*You earn an even greater respect for the film makers and all those involved in the project. *Lots of hilarious stories from the cast and crew.
Right, now I'm off to check out the commentaries. First up, the cast commentary.
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