Comes out today....for those of you who missed the 12:01 screening last night (as I did...work this morning, bleh! hopefully I'll catch it tomorrow). Post your reviews as you get them! I'm interested in what you guys think.

I got one

...and I got another

bah....I meant personal reviews...but thanks for the links

Heh, I know, but some of us aren't brave enough to attempt an opening night of this thing. Talk about masochistic

Actually, I'm going on Saturday. I'm not going to drink a thing all day, either, because I'm going to get in line early!

I did the midnight showing for the first one, and it was awesome. It was just great to be with a bunch of die-hards.

My company is taking us all out to see Two Towers this afternoon, however, so I couldn't in good conscious see it last night and take the morning off (as I had planned). My wife was very upset by this turn of events, as she really wanted to see it last night. Oh well.

I did the midnight showing, and although it was a great movie, I was disapointed.

SPOLIERS AHEAD!!!

A couple of notes. It seemed to me like they tried to make Gimli the comic relief this movie. Not the counting at Helm's Deep, I thought that was great that they included it. But all sorts of other times.. ie.. too short to see over the wall at Helm's Deep.

The first time Gollum had a dialog with himself. I thought it was just a bit too much over the top. The other two were done much better. But Gollum looked fantastic! The work there was incredible!

Faramir taking Frodo, and Sam to Osgiliath. When reading the book, I developed a hate for Boromir, but not his brother. With them making Faramir giving into the same temptation that his brother did, I started to hate him too. He plays such an important role, and now they have started me hating him. I do wish they would have done that like the book, and let them go of thier own will at the waterfall.

All the flashbacks. Farther into the movie they decreased, but it just seemed to me like there were too many flashbacks. Yes they did expound on them all, but it was still disapointing to me. As I watched Gandalf fighting the Balrog again, I was anxious for it to move on to something I hadn't seen yet...

Over all it was a good movie. I think I went in with higher expectations. Fellowship I think was better overall, but this was a good movie.

edit: I found this review that is kind of what I think. Except I thought the ents rocked, and I wanted to see a bit more of them.

Wow, I disagree with you on almost every point. Interesting. I did the 12:01 showing too last night, and was absolutely blown away. I thought this one was 10 times better than the first, in almost every possible way. The first movie got a 8.5 from me, this one gets a 10+. I have not been this impressed with a movie in many years.

SPOILERS:

The movie started with the Gandolf vs. Balrog fight, true, but it was an expanded version, and was truly amazing. The Gollum dialogs, especially the first, were brilliant. And the Gimli and the wall scene probably gained the biggest laugh of the night. The Ent batle scenes were fantastic, as was the final battle.

The special effects were amazing, the story was great, it didn't drag at all, and the acting was certainly adequate. Honestly, I can think of nothing bad to say about this movie, and this is coming from someone who usually doesn't think much of movies.

I went today and arrived at about 16.55hrs. The movie startes at 17.00hrs. Since this was the afternoon show there wasn't that big of a crowd. Only about ten people standing before me in line. But that cashier was SLOOOOOW...incredible! She managed to take up 10 minutes to give ten people a entry ticket. When it was my turn it was 17.05hrs, so I told her not to bother since the movie had already started for 5 minutes.

That's the last time I'm ever buying my tickets at the cinema itself. Next time I'll order online before I drive up there.

Well, I went last night at 12:01, and you really had no reason to worry. The comericals started at 12, then there were previews, then the movie started at 12:30. I've got to say paying $10 to watch comercials before a movie is kind of excessive.

Matthew

I hope to see it soon. I loved the first one and have read the books so many times over the years. And as soon as I buy a DVD player it will be the first movie I buy.

Maybe I should have clarified that over here the "show" starts at 16.45hrs, meaning 15 minutes of commercials before the actual movie starts. So it did start at 17.00hrs. Sorry about that.

I'm still a bit pissed at that cashier. I mean, if she can't even hack it with this little amount of people, I really pity all those people that stood in queue at the evening shows of 20hrs and 22.30hrs. Hopefully for them her last shift was the afternoon edition. (doubtful)

Maybe I should have clarified that over here the "show" starts at 16.45hrs, meaning 15 minutes of commercials before the actual movie starts. So it did start at 17.00hrs. Sorry about that.

Good thing I read to the last post... the theater I went to had showings every hour on the hour - I went for the 2pm showing. I wish they did advertise times like your times... the commercials at my showing lasted for almost 10 minutes, then previews. I think it was 2:22 when the movie started. But in all earnest... I still think its worth it to show up early and get a good seat, rather than fumbling in the dark finding a seat near the front on the side. The Z commercial was pretty cool, though.

I bought my ticket online - first time I had done so. It was very quick, I just gave the guy my credit card and he handed it back to me with the ticket... that was it.

As far as the movie, its definitely worth the time. I thought Gollum was an amusing little character, and well done (CGI-wise), no Jar Jar Binks here.

Anyone notice how Frodo's cape assumed the shape of a fake rock outside the gates of Mordor, protecting him and Sam? I thought that was pretty cool. The false boulder did sort of look like a rock from the set for the original Star Trek... but I guess the two warriors didnt watch much... Ahh nevermind.

I think this second installment of the trilogy was better... I didn't feel as tired after watching it as the first, but it is still a 3 hour movie (plus commercials and previews.. pushing 3 1/2). The level of action is much higher. I don't want to re-iterate too much of what has already been said, so I'll stop there.

Oh, one other thing - its been quite a long time since I read the books, and I'm not all up to what types of technology they were up to... but given the medieval aspect I thought I would have seen some hot oil being dumped from the walls of Helms Deep, and some Trebuchets would have been nice. Not a complaint... on second thought these things probably wouldn't fit, but trebuchets are still cool (hey, I'm an AOE2 guy...)

Thats enough for now!

You should meet my brother. He built a trebuchet. It only stood 5 feet tall, but was still pretty cool. Not like the true ones they made. Those things threw bolders forever!

> You should meet my brother. He built a trebuchet.

Hehe, well we are a bunch of geeks here. I doubt I am the only one on this board who has built one as well. There is quite a bit of information on the net on how to do it.

I was always more into electric weaponry - like large coils energised by a couple of batteries triggered by floor pressure switches. It's always fun watching your family jump.

It was only when I started wiring the garden with motion detectors that Dad said I should take up sailing like the other ten-year-olds.

I saw a show on TLC about them once. Some guy built a model that threw pebbles across a room, and stood about a foot high. I wanted to build a little model to do just that...

like large coils energised by a couple of batteries

Railgun? One of my friends attempted to make one

Dad said I should take up sailing

Ahh, good old sailing!

I also thought the film was fantastic. Every part of the battle at Helms Deep was amazing to watch. I loved when Legolas shot the rope and made one of the large ladders fall. You could see all the orcs at the bottom get knocked out of the way. Then when Gandalf and the other reinforcements rode down the hill and the light bathed the battle field...holy crap. Visually stunning. The ent attack on Isengard was also breathtaking.

Frankly, I think the best actor in the movie was Gollum. I kept forgetting he wasn't real and was fascinated by his facial expressions and body movements. The rest of the actors were usually panicked or awestruck by things or looking very serious. They did fine, but nothing stellar.

An amazing movie.

I was a little dissappointed that they edited Eomer out of the Helm's Deep fight and put him in the place of Erkenbrand at the riding of the Rohirrim at the of the fight.

If you're going to talk about disappointing changes, what was the deal with Faramir? I loved the movie, but the change to his character was quite drastic.

Yeah, they really took too much liberty with his character. I'm not sure what the point of equating him with his brother was, but he's not supposed to be like that.

My only other complaint was Sam's speech at the end. It was far too long and over the top. Supposedly they added it on afterwards because they felt the movie was missing something. Bah.

Looks like I'll have nothing to do Christmas so I guess I'll go by myself and see the movie.

If you feel like a drive to NC you're welcome to hang with my family on Christmas. I'll prolly see it for the third time with all of them sometime in the next few days.

I saw the movie last night and thought it was fantastic.
I also just went to the LOTR site and had a look at the behind the scene section here. There are entire sections which I didn't realise were effects!
Amazing stuff

Well I ended up being in bed with the flu for the holidays so I didn't get to see it yet. One of these days I will.

I was really quite disappointed with the movie. The first one held pretty close to the books but this one really took too much liberty. Merry and Pippin in Fanghorn was drastically changed, Treebeards character was greatly diminished. Frodo going to Gondor?? Were did that come from? Faramirs character was reduced greatly by the way they changed his character into that of a common soldier. The list goes on and on. They really screwed it up for anyone that has read LOTR 10 or 20 times. Very disappointing. The eye candy was great but CGI has lost its luster for me as it is now common place.

As Peter Jackson said, you cannot just take a book a film it. That has never worked and never will.
Many characters where left out or changed and thier deeds or 'feel' etc filled in by other characters. Just look at the changes required in the first film to speed up the journey to Bree, no Bombadill, no months waiting and planning with Merry etc from the start, all knowing what the ring can do, no missing note from Gandalf at the Prancing Pony, the list is pretty long!
I agree that Two Towers has a changed feel from Fellowship, but the two books are radically different and the change is supposed to be there.

The review from the SunTimes link was pathetic and left me wondering if the reviewer had actually even read the books. He was complaining that it was like an action movie, not a story of modest hero hobbits. Hello, this is now a war story with one epic battle after another, inflicting layers of pain, suffering and desperation, not the innocence of the fellowship.
How else will all the characters be so affected by the events as they are in the book if they do not get knee deep in orc blood? These are the events that change Merry and Pippin into soldiers, turns Aragorn into a king, makes and Elf and a Dwarf into friends and affects Frodo so much that he goes with the elves in the end, all innocence gone.

Folk seem to be getting very confused as to what this film was about, don't forget that the books told the Frodo/"Everyone else" story separately in each book to the exclusion of all else to emphasize the separation between the two equally valid struggles. This just wouldn't work on film.

Last bits, Faramir only just let them go, so is still a proven good guy in that at least he was able to do, in the end, what Boromir could not. And his eventual reward will be punishment. I agree that taking them into Gondor was wierd. Don;t understand that.

After all the rambling. Overall, I though it was a pretty good movie, go see it.

Anyone know what happened to Gollum's flashback scene (seems like everyone else got one)? In all the pre-release hype Peter Jackson told of the flashback to Deagol finding the one ring and Smeagol murdering him and taking it. It'll probably be available in the next 'extended feature DVD' but I'd hate to think that it was cut for Sam's speach at the end.

Oooh, I would have liked to see that. I agree, I'd prefer it much more than Sam's sappy lecture.

I certain don't disagree with you that it was a good movie, well worth viewing. I understand the difficulties in converting a book to a movie. I have no issues with parts being omitted to keep the viewing time down to a reasonable limit. I just didn't care for the "feel" of the movie, the way it wandered from the book left me feeling somewhat empty. I would expect that the Faramir thing might have been to allow the Shelob portion of the story to be told in the third installment as the third book does not have quite as much "stuff" in it as the first two. I guess we'll see in a year or so!

I know what you mean, having been so used to the all one story then the next thingy of the last two books, getting bits of one story interleaved with the other gets a bit wierd.
I thought it captured the sheer desperation and hopelessness of it all very well, but I suppose it would feel a bit strange considering all hollywood sponsored movies seem to require a happy ending of sorts. So this one had to end on a hopeful note, albeit with the hint of betrayal from good old gollum. Personally I would have prefered to be left in the pit of despair, ready to be saved by the last movie.

Give me a "Crouching Tiger" ending over the standard crud anytime.

I would guess that 'Return' is going to start gloomy and get happier in the last half.

Although I can't wait to see how far he takes the end, will it end with the defeat of Sauron, or after Aragorn is crowned or best of all, with Bilbo, Frodo and Galdalf all sailing off with the last of the elves.

After mentioning the "Pit of Despair" reminded me of that other classic, the Princess Bride, oh well

oooh! don't spoil it for the rest of us

On the way out of the cinema, we heard a family discussing what was going to happen in the last one. They were all wondering about what might happen to everyone, like there was some big secret.
We didn't have the heart to tell them what was going to happen nor tell them where they might find out.

"The review from the SunTimes link was pathetic and left me wondering if the reviewer had actually even read the books. He was complaining that it was like an action movie, not a story of modest hero hobbits."

Ebert said this in his review as well, but I simply don't agree. Especially in the third book, Tolkien really focused on the action (Aragorn and company got half a book, the hobbits had two chapters and then hooked up with everyone else), not the hobbits.

As for the Farimire thing, this really did disappoint me. I still loved the movie, but this was such a drastic change that it did take from the movie. However, I've always approached these movies as a re-telling of the myth, and with that I think the succeed beautifully.

Actually, Ebert writes for the SunTimes. That was my link at the top And yeah, I disagreed with that too. I don't think he should have made such statements without re-reading the books.

as with all interpretations there will be some happy folk and some not so happy. But at least with this one it never quite makes it into the that was crap side of things!
I think the change of pace caught a lot of folk off guard, maybe they were expecting more of the first movie, who knows.

BTW, has anyone tried to buy a new copy of the books, I cannot find a paperback that does not have movie pictures on the cover. My old 'one book' version is so ragged now it really need to have a rest.

Ah, now you see that's why you should click on a link before you respond. . .

I would expect that the Faramir thing might have been to allow the Shelob portion of the story to be told in the third installment

The Shelob segment, if it was filmed at all, is likely to end up on one of the "extended" DVDs: the setup for it was only on the extended Fellowship DVD, not in the cinema release.

Peter

But, Gollum at the end kept saying that "she" will kill the hobbits. I had heard before that the plan was for Shelob to be in the third movie.

I'd bet that they'll truncate the scene in the orc's tower and the one with the tracking orc pair but keep Shelob. I wonder if they'll even have Sam carry the ring.

-Zeke

Comes out today....

That's old news by now.... check out the hot news I found out about "The Return of the King!" here (warning: very slow website!)

I can hardly wait!

tanstaafl.

edit: hmmm... website speed seems ok with IE -- maybe it just doesn't like Netscape?

ROFL!!