The Two Towers

[Fellfrosch]

I began counting down to The Two Towers on Monday, much to my wife's chagrin, because it now comes out in less than a month. I thought I'd take a moment here to let you all in on how excited I am.

The true power of Peter Jackson's movies is put into perspective when you go back to the summer of 1999, where you will find me camped out overnight to buy first-day tickets to The Phantom Menace. There were other theaters in my city that had plenty of tickets available, but I camped out because a) I wanted to see it on a huge screen and b) I was a devout fan and acolyte of all things Star Wars. We camped out because, doggone it, we were supposed to. Then we actually saw the movie and pretended to love, all while talking under our breath about the things we didn't like. By the time Attack of the Clones came into view our enthusiasm was dampened--we crossed our fingers and said "I hope it doesn't suck," and then wandered into the theater on the second or even third weekend for two hours of agreeably unphenomenal entertainment. The movies are well made, but we have too much baggage to enjoy them properly; half of our mind watches the movie as it is, while the other half is busy imagining it as we wanted it to be. Oh well, we sighed, no movie could live up to that kind of expectation.

But we were wrong. If any movie could be more anticipated than Star Wars, it would have to be The Lord of the Rings. They are like the polar pillars of modern geek culture--the greatest movies ever made and the greatest books ever written. Lord of the Rings, by merit of its age and academic pretenses, has an even wider fan base than Star Wars. When Fellowship came out we were giddy with anticipation, but The Phantom Menace had taught us not to get our hopes up and we didn't. We braced ourselves for something excitingly shallow and disturbingly distant from our own mental images, but the movie surprised us by being incredible. Disagree with me if you like, but it was an awesome movie and we all loved it. Whereas Star Wars failed to live up to our expectations and left us fairly tepid about the sequel, The Lord of the Rings surpassed my expectations and had me drooling for a sequel before I even left my seat in the theater.

The fact that The Two Towers was my favorite book only heightens the situation--it increases my anticipation while raising the odds that I will be betrayed and disappointed. The Riders of Rohan the Ents are the coolest groups of people in the series, and the moving interaction between Frodo, Sam, and Gollum is one of the most profound subjects Tolkien ever approached. I have learned, however, to trust Peter Jackson as much as if he opened my brain, photocopied my memories, improved on them, and then put them into his movie.

I hope you're all as excited as I am, and if you're not then I hope you didn't read my entire post--it would probably bore anyone who wasn't a raving fanboy. But still, I thought I'd let you know that the countdown has begun. I think I might camp out again, because doggone it, you're just supposed to.

[Slant]

Hey, you're preaching to the choir.  I have been a Tolkien fan since age ten or so when I first started playing Basic D&D and was told that the game was largely inspired by this trilogy.  The books are more than good fantasy: they are an entire universe and world with complete theology, history, and complex political structures.  While others my age were reading Dragonlance (also fun, but aimed at children), I was reading about the fallen Numenorians, the dispossessed Rangers, and poor Smeagol who tried in vain to inhibit his dark impulses.  The very first fantasy campaign I ran was set in Middle Earth using basic D&D rules, and it remains one of the best campaigns I ever created.

[Lord_of_Me]

28 and a bit days to go...

from the two trailers that i've seen so far this new movie is going to have me camping outside the cinema!
for an up to the second countdown go here
http://spitfire.ausys.se/johan/cave/default.asp

[Tage]

I'm seriously considering camping for The Two Towers as well. Count me in among the raving fanboys.

[House of Mustard]

Why camp?  Can't you get the tickets on Fandango?

By the way, Fell - I think I was the one who did most of the camping for Star Wars I.  You just showed up at the end and pretended you were neat.

[Fellfrosch]

I was there all night, you little freak. You got there a bit before I did, so I guess you were there longer, but it's not like I missed anything. The streakers and the pot didn't show up until about midnight.

[Slant]

They had streakers and pot??  Maaaan, all we had at the camp-out for Chamber of Secrets was a bunch of middle-schoolers in tatty black robes playing Pokemon and asking all the cute girls if they'd ever seen the old Magic Wand trick.

[Fellfrosch]

To be fair, the streakers weren't naked, just in their underwear, and I didn't smoke any pot, I just inhaled it second-hand from the group of fanboys hobos sitting next to me. The biggest drug trip was actually on the part of our third camper, whom we will call Lovebasket, who had to turn in a school paper the following day and spent the night typing it and chugging hourly shots of caffeine and No-Doze to say awake.

[Tage]

That's the part about the Star Wars campout that I still regret missing the most. Lovebasket is usually so mellow, I would have loved to see him pumped up on unhealthy amounts of caffeine.

Does anyone know when Two Towers tix go on sale at Fandango?

[House of Mustard]

I've never viewed Lovebasket as particularly mellow.

I was there a good twelve or fourteen hours before you slackers, which isn't that long except my only company were the aforementioned potheads.

[Kid_Kilowatt]

I already have tickets to a 6:05 show on opening night.  My brother bought a bunch at Jordon Landing - I guess you can go there and buy them in advance already.  I believe this was why I ended up seeing FOTR at this theater, too - they have the most advanced advance sales.  At least it's better than having to camp out for days in the line in front of my laptop waiting for Fandango to open its ticket office.  

"I work for Mr. Fandango!"

[Kid_Kilowatt]

It's official - people have seen the final cut of The Two Towers, and you're not one of them!  And neither am I, for that matter.  Luckily, people are starting to write down their (overwhelmingly positive) opinions of the movies for us to read.  I wouldn't read them if you want to leave the beginning and ending and important bits of the movie as a surprise because these reviews are SPOILER-riffic:

http://www.lightsoutentertainment.com/movies/reviews.php?filmID=2&reviewID=31

http://www.aintitcoolnews.com/display.cgi?id=13950

http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/2/1038851383

Having read these first three reviews, I am unbelievably psyched for how good this movie is going to be.

[Fellfrosch]

I want to read them, but I don't know if I dare. could you give some non-spoiler highlights?

[Kid_Kilowatt]

I was serious when I said that these reviews contain HUGE spoilers - I now know, for instance, exactly how Two Towers ends.  It's a great ending - take my word for it.  To sum up the non-spoiler impressions of the movie (and it's hard to draw a line between spoiler and non-spoiler), people seem to agree that the CGI of the ents and Gollum is the best thing of its kind to come along.  One reviewer liked the love triangle - one didn't.  All reviewers point to Helm's Deep as the centerpiece, saying its scope and choreography is impressive in its scale and clarity.  One reviewer had gripes about bits that were added and the portrayal of Faramir.  Overall, though, people seem impressed with the continued characterization of the leads with the addition of several new major players.  Merry and Pippin are not the comic relief in this one - Gimil gets all the funny lines, which one reviewer didn't particularly like.  Gollum's characterization is praised highly, especially the nuanced schizophrenic monologues that work well in spite of him being CGI.

Of the bits I read about that are new, I like some of the additions for the romance plot, but the added action sequences (particularly the ones involving Aragorn and Frodo) bother me a little.  Like I said, though, I like the ending and I like the way they start things off with a bang, too.  Looks like a three-hour rollercoaster ride - darker in tone and in color than the first one (browns and greys instead of blues and greens) with more action and on a larger scale.  It doesn't suffer from the problem of redundant exposition, although this will leave anyone seeing this movie before FOTR completely lost (if anyone in the world actually plans on seeing the second one first.)  Most of what I've described is either redundant and obvious or bordering on spoilers, though.  If there are specific things you want to know without reading the VERY revealing reviews - let me know what you want to know and I'll do what I can to provide answers.  

[Slant]

Every review that I've read to date has been overwhelmingly positive.  I was psyched to see the first one, but now that I hear that this one will likely be even better....  I'm just gollypuzwumpled with anticipation!!  From what I hear, the fellow playing Faramir is the best of the new actors and Gollum is the best all-around new character.  What a great time to be a fantasy fan!

Faramir...
Eowyn.....
Theodin..
Grima.....
Gollum....

They're finally coming, my preciousssss.......