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erikdeb
Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
I would like to ask Peter Jackson... WHY????????? (Spoilers ahead!!)
I have just seen "THE TWO TOWERS". A movie which I was expecting intensely all year. I was thrilled and excited whilst the movie began.
In this review I will not outline the story/plot which I think are present in most reviews. But I will show my expectations before the movie (probably the expectations of all those, who like me, read the book) and my reactions afterwards. WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD so if you haven't read the book or seen the movie you should stop reading now.
Having read the book I had a list of things which I wanted to see.
Gollum, Treebeard and the Ents attacking Isengard, The Battle of Helm's Deep and SHELOB..
ALL of these lived up to my expectations. GOLLUM is the most impressive CGI character on movie history so far. He is so well integrated with the scenes and characters that you feel he is real. The part were he is in conflict with himself showing his evil and calm side is BRILLIANT and my favorite part of the movie. We can safely say that GOLLUM makes both DOBBY (Harry Potter) and YODA (Star Wars II) look like TOY STORY CHARACTERS!! The ENTS were also very good, even tough that some parts when Merry and Pippin were on Treebeard looked rather ackward. Their attack on Isengard was as I expected it showing the wrath and great strength of the ents against the tower of Orthanc. The Battle of Helm's Deep... well what can I say, it is quite incredible. Thousands of characters fighting each other in one of the most intense battle sequences I have ever seen.
THE TWO TOWERS is in scale probably even more grand than THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING. So why ruin it MR Jackson??? WHY???
During the last 30 minutes I was disappointed to the point of crying. Jackson took the two towers and ripped it apart like it was a cheap magazine! I can accept that he gives more importance to Arwen (Liv Tyler) as Aragorn's (Viggo Mortensen) love interest even tough she is barely mentioned in the lord of the rings books (i must remind you than an elf named GLORFINDEL took Frodo to Rivindell and not Arwen... but still.. whatever). I can accept that Eomer was not part of the battle of Helm's Deep but came afterwards with Gandalf. I can even accept that Gimli was turned into a clown to give us some comic relief during the intense battle sequences.
And of course I can accept that that the "SHELOB part", "the Saruman Vs Gandalf part" and "the PIPPIN let me take a look at the Palantir part" were omitted from the movie since I expect them to be in "THE RETURN OF THE KING"
But why were Frodo, Sam and Gollum taken to Gondor by Faramir and his men? Why Frodo had that encounter with the Nazgul? Why was he going to kill Samwise? None of these are present in the book, and to my eyes the whole part of Frodo and co taken to Gondor was useless to the movie since they were afterwards released. It only added a couple of minutes to an already long and tiring movie. I tried to understand the point of it but couldn't find any reason. Maybe it's all planned. Maybe it will all be explained in "The Return of the King" next year and maybe it was just an hour of madness by Jackson.
I can say that the last part completely ruined all that was good from "the fellowship" and the first two hours and a half of the "two towers". Probably I am a too much a fan of the book to understand that this is still one of the greatest, if not the greatest, movie ever conceived both in scale and conception. And probably no movie will ever match the greatness of a book and the experience of reading it.
BUT STILL I WAS HURT AND DISAPPOINTED.. I wonder what Tolkien would say...
10 out of 10 during almost all the movie..
The last part takes down my rating to 7.
Mike's New Car (2002)
Short but Hilarious!!
I have seen Monster's Inc, thinking that no computer animated movie will ever reach the levels of Shrek. Well I was surely wrong!! This short feature about Mike's new car is simply hilarious. Just watch Mike's and Sully's facial expressions.. 8 out of 10
Ocean Oasis (2000)
My First time at an IMAX theater and not competly satisfied
This was my first time that I visited an Imax theater. The theater is quite impressive but I was not completely satisfied with the documentary.
Ocean Oasis depicts the life, richness and beauty of nature in a part of the world which has not yet been ruined by men. Whilst, I admit, certain scenes are quite spectacular, the documentary fails to give sufficient detail and one gets the feeling that it is too short. The flow of the movie is not smooth and it jumps from one aspect to another without any apparent connection, focusing on certain parts whilst just skimming on others. Also the narration is not very good. It seams clear to me that the narrators where not English speaking an so they felt quite awkward.
Finally, I think that the movie is not at all suitable for an Imax theater because no part of it gives you enough trill which should justify seeing it on the huge screen. All in all my overall score for it is 5.5/10 but you should definetely wait for it to be released either on TV or on video to even considering seeing it.