As no one is around and I'm very far behind on catching up with the discussions I've missed, I'll take the soapbox and rattle on about Two Towers having just seen it with my oldest son (10).

As a background: I'm a longstanding Tolkien fanatic. I've read the books dozens of times, including the Hobbit and Silmarillion. I wore out my paperback LoTR copies, and now have a leatherbound, slipcover version that I treasure.

Hated the first adaptation (Bashki cartoon, circa 70s) and the follow-on Return of the king (early 80s? WB-really, really awful). The LoTR by Bashki suffered from 3 things: Not enough time, not enough money, and not enough understanding of the story (or storytelling in general). Gandalf carries all the exposition of the movie and the whole first half hour is dedicated to long, tedious monologues to catch us up with all this ring business. Then everything rushes headlong in a confused and jarring attempt to get it all over with. The rotoscoped animation and cheezy effects were distracting and annoying. The characters were 2D interchangeable bores and Bashki couldn't seem to decide if this was a children's move (a la Little Mermaid: cut all the bad stuff and put music around what's left) or grown-up cartoon (a la Princess Mononoke) and collapses under the sheer weight of it all. The WB attempt to finish the story in Return of the King was abysmal, so bad that it gives me shivers remembering. Taking a purely KIDDIE approach, they sum-up the entire 600 pages of the first two books in a SONG (and an awful one) that lasts 10 minutes and is destined to lose and confuse any children who aren't genuises at interpreting bad musical lyrics. Add to that even worse animation (very Smurfish looking) and you end up with a mess.

Ah.. on to better things.

Not being a "purist" in terms of converting Tolkien to the screen, I'll give Peter Jackson credit for (1) appreciating the story as it is written (2) understanding that a BOOK and a MOVIE are two vastly different mediums with strengths and weaknesses to navigate (3) Attempting to produce the core tale in LoTR in a format that defies easy translation.

That said, I loved Fellowship. I found it breathtaking, stirring, and fiercely loyal to the source material. Yes, he cut out Bombadil, I would have to. If he hadn't taken a brutal scalpel to the book there'd be 16 movies and we wouldn't meet any of the non-hobbit Fellowship until the 5th one. Moria alone would have been a movie. (Lord of the Rings: Moria... mmmm, nah). I felt that the changes (I'm still hesitant on Liv Tyler, not the actress, the role) were mostly good and met the need to flesh out the movie in terms of story beyond "Lets go destroy this here ring". Tolken used a lot of characterization, but putting all of the characters and their backstories on the screen would have required handing out playbooks at the door. Fellowship gets a solid 10 for suceeding as the few faults I had were so overshadowed by the goodies that I had fogotten them by the end.

So, on to TT.

TT suffers from "second act" issues, as any middle part of a story might. The characterization needs to build on the established personalities, new characters who are integral to the plot should be kept to a minimum, and the story should progress toward the conclusion. The conflicts should be progressively complex and foreshadows of the possible final climax should be introduced. It manages all of this to some degree or another. TT manages some climactic scenes with Helm's Deep and Isengard, but suffers in that they are mostly build up with the climax rushed past in a hurry. I wanted to savor the victories! If you can linger over the armies BEFORE the battle, give us some AFTER the battle lingering! The whole Aragorn Love Triangle annoys me, probably because it took time away from the battles! I'm sure it'll all come together at the end (I've read the book, after all) in something that will add some character empathy, but my testosterone craves orc-beheading.

The CGI and FX in TT is far and away better than anything I've seen, including Star Wars. Gollum is 95% real, you'll only rarely think "it's a computer generated thing" and those were generally at times when he was physically interacting with other characters. In the environment, he's just shy of flesh and bone. Plus his dual nature (bad guy-worse guy) was fun to watch and came off really well. The oliphants were freakin cool, the miniature sets are awesome. I was only really aware of the FX being FX during the flooding scene (it looked like a miniature at times) the wargs (looked a bit less real when running, much better standing around growling) and the hobbits sitting on Treebeard (background was off... don't know why). Otherwise the FX were like icing on the cake. Star Wars seems to me to suffer from a lack of cake, and eating pure icing is ok for about 30 seconds.

That said, the core story is intact (minus some detours) and the parties are headed where they're supposed to for the big third act. I had really hoped to see Shelob in this one, but I'm guessing that she'll be the big CG critter for RoTK and that Minus Tirith will be the set piece with the big battle scene. Looking forward to the big scene in the volcano and final resolution.

OK, gone all next week probably. Happy Holidays. .-Brian-.