"You don't have any friends. Nobody likes you." (Gollum)
"Give me your name horsemaster, and I shall give you mine." (Gimli)
"We agree..................You are not Orcs." (Treebeard)
Thesis: Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers is the greatest achievement of the Trilogy. (It is not my favorite or the best.)
1. Movies middles are the hardest to craft thematically.
A. They lack a clear Beginning and End.
a. The story was started in Part I
b. The true emotional/plot payoff is in Part III
B. The emotional and character arcs are artificial
a. As the book was written to be one part, the total arc is through 3 parts not just the middle
b. Watching a middle of middle emotional change would be boring
2. Expectations were through the roof.
A. Part I was a smashing success
a. Yes, they were all filmed at the same time, but does that mean the movies won't fall off?
b. Remember the Matrix II and III?
3. Technical worries
A. Gollum
a. Remember Jar Jar? (Me neither.)
B. Viewers getting confused
a. There are three distinctly different stories with 14 main characters.
b. The main villains don't interact with our heroes and one is a "ancient malevolent spirit of doom" with no real shape.
c. Location Location Location
4. The Battle for Helm's Deep
a. If the battle was lame....the whole trilogy was screwed.
b. If the battle was too good....part III was screwed
c. Holding a views attention
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was a huge triumph. It was not preordained. In retrospect it seems like a no brainer...but, I think we should all reconsider our respect for Part II.
Ratings:
Orukhai: BLARRHGGHHGHGHGH
Sauron: See your doom coming from a far
Zulu: Everybody watch you and marvel at the tension building technique
Film Scholars: See it
Nerds: Probably watch it once a year
On a scale from Letters to Emails, I give Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 4.5 out of 5 stars.
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