LOTR: The Two Towers

Let's try to mash all the LOTR submissions into one. Reviews: comingsoon.net, Empire Online (UK), CNN, Slate, Salon. The LA Times has a story about animating Gollum which we can't link to because it requires registration. Lord Satri writes "Ents, elves and mages being on every orc's lips, new versions of Tales Of Middle-Earth are available. It is an open source, one player and online multiplayer game. It is ported to many OS's. Yeah, no terrific graphics, but the game is really worthwhile. It is based on the famous roguelike Angband (variants here). Faithful to Tolkien's writings."

Comments

For Christs Sake...

[Ted_Green]

"The LA Times has a story about animating Gollum which we can't link to because it requires registration."

Grow up.

If you don't want to link to it because it requires registration, fine. But don't make snide comments like that, as if you were reprimanding the site (or worse the story submitters) for having "registration required." Esp. since Slashdot already has "grandfathered in" the New York Times.

Re:Great!

[Anonymous Coward]

"tree things"? "return of the ring"? dear oh dear. they're called ents, and the third book is called "return of the king". it's good to know it left such a lasting imression. how did the little guys with the furry feet do? was the big white guy with the stick as cool as last time?

Re:Faithful to Tolkien's writings?

[nagora]

Are you one of those who think "if it is different from the book, it's automatically crap!".

No, it was crap because it was crap. Jackson shows no ability to keep the focus on characterisation and off fight scenes. He constantly take the simple option when the plot or issues raise become complex.

I have had this argument many many times on /. so I won't go into great detail again:

• Gandalf portrayed as some sort of nut that jumps out on Frodo from behind doors in the dark (oh, dear; Frodo's dropped dead from a heart attack).
• Frodo rescued at ford instead of showing his inner strength
• Balrog sequence made no sense at all. What was the balrog doing while they played "balance the multi ton rock pile", putting on its Nikes?
• The totally awful break dancing between Suruman and Gandalf. Oh, god, that was bad! Followed by the obligitory continuity error (now you see Gandalf's staff, now you don't, now you do again).
• Gimli's character just a basic twat who knows nothing about the rings
• Lots of continuity errors in the shire's landscape
• Watcher does not seal them into Moria on purpose; this is quite a chilling part of the book - the idea that the watcher in the water is NOT the real threat
• Lorien a total shambles with continuity errors and WTF is all that telepathy crap about? What happened to the hatred between the elves and the dwarfs?

The best example, though, of Jackson just not "getting it" was the scene between Frodo and Bilbo at Rivendell: in Baksi's film this is a very powerful and moving scene.

Bakshi has taken two paragraphs and produced one of the most moving scenes in any adaptation of the book. Where Tolkien just says "he felt a desire to strike him", Bakshi has shown us Frodo's unconciously clenched fist rising out of both his and Bilbo's sight. When Bilbo finally says "I understand now; put it away" the feeling of dispair is very strong. I can't remember if Sir Ian Holm put the same depth of emotion into the line, or even if he said it at all, because I was still startled by the silly bulging eyes effect.

Jackson is a hack.

TWW