Ringer fan Luthien had a chance of a lifetime to attend the New York City Premiere of The Two Towers. Here is her report!
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My father read The Hobbit to me when I was six years old, and ever since then, I have grown up in Middle Earth. As a fifth-grader gobbling up Lotr for the very first time, I was a misplaced elf who’d somehow (tragically!) gotten stuck in a human family in the American midwest. As a teenager it was to Rohan that I escaped, where I could be a shieldmaiden of the mark as opposed to an awkward tomboy. Peter Jackson’s Fotr managed to put on screen a world I’d visited so many times that I knew it instantly by sight, so you can imagine my excitement when I found out I’d be viewing TTT in his company–at the TT world premiere in New York City!!
How can you describe standing on a red carpet when PJ steps out of his limousine, and everyone on the sidewalk starts screaming and pressing forward, and the bodyguards hold back the crowd, and meanwhile you’re five feet away, on the same red carpet, with your glossy ticket in your hand, and the bouncers let you IN??? There are no words for it.
Or, later, at the NYC Public library, which had been redone into a fully catered party, with DJ spread on the balcony, a statue of the White Rider in the lobby, Elvish and Gondorian armor lining the walls, and models dressed as elves holding lanterns on the steps? Again, not in my dictionary.
But I digress. We’ll start with the movie. I tend to avoid spoilers as a rule, so I was unprepared for what I saw last night. Peter Jackson warned us a few times that of all the movies, TTT deviates the most from the books, and with that I’d wholly agree. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool purist, you’ll have much to object to. If you’re a forgiving purist (which is what I’d call myself), there are a few heartbreaking moments in the film where stuff you’d expect to happen doesn’t. But then, other stuff that you’ve been waiting your entire life to see on a big screen DOES, and the overall effect is just incredible. I was in tears three times during the film. The loving care and attention to detail that was so breathtaking in FotR has been applied to entire armies of men and orcs! This film is powerful and wonderful in its own right, even if it doesn’t perfectly mirror the books.
And now, on to the party. This being my first ever world premiere, I had no idea what to expect–a bunch of beautiful people eating chicken satay on sticks and drinking martinis? A bunch of groupies following stars around like a mobile nebula? As it turned out, it was neither. Stars and fans, famous folk and little folk alike, seemed to mingle seamlessly. In the course of one evening, I was able to speak to most of the cast of TTT, as well as Richard Taylor and Philippa Boyens, and in all cases, they were warm and approachable, and eager for feedback! I stood next to one of my friends while he told a rather long and complicated joke to Billy Boyd, and Billy actually laughed, and asked if he could use it! (way to go, John!) Both Orlando and Elijah let me take pictures with them, which was quite a thrill, and Andy Serkis has the most amazing hair (gravity-defying, really). But I should also add that the warmth and conviviality was not limited to the stars–guests were striking up conversations with each other, smiling at strangers, opening doors for one another–a collective energy which is not often seen in the NY Public library, trust me.
(Spoiler ahead) The highlight of the evening for me (other than the shrimp hors-d’oeuvres, which were a smashing success), was talking with David Wenham and Philippa Boyens. He was sitting off in a corner looking a bit tired when I first approached. We ended up speaking for about twenty minutes about the changes they’d made to Faramir, and about movie adaptations in general. As Philippa later pointed out, Faramir is an unshakable pillar of bravery, wisdom and forebearance in the books, someone who wouldn’t touch the Ring even if he saw it lying by the wayside. From a movie perspective, though, that’s dull since his character is static, so they added a touch of doubt and conflict to his character in order to create more of a journey for him.
It goes without saying that discussing the wheres and why-fors of TTT with Philippa Boyens was quite a trip in and of itself. Unfortunately, it couldn’t last. While in the middle of talking with David Wenham, Orlando Bloom rushed up and insisted that David join them at Flow (a bar in the wilds of the west village, apparently), and my companions and I realized that we were exhausted. How do the movie stars do it? After one evening of fighting crowds, snagging drinks off of little silver trays and conversing with so many people–oof, I was drained. After one more swipe at the dessert table, and a brief stop to congratulate Brad Dourif on his incredible accent, we swept back outside into the cold and snow, where some elf-maidens got us our coats. What a night! I can’t believe I’ll have to wait another twelve days now before I can go back and visit again!
Luthien
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We will be posting some of the photos Luthien took tomorrow or Monday. Stay tuned!
Melian writes: I just found this on the paper’s entertainment wire. French and Saunders are the team behind the UK’s hit show “Absolutely Fabulous.”
FRENCH & SAUNDERS: LORD OF THE RINGS 3 stars
What: Parody of Peter Jackson’s acclaimed movie epic by the British comedy duo Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
Where: BBC America.
When: 5 tonight and midnight.
In a nutshell: Clever but brief parody leaves a lot of targets unscathed.
Just as “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” prepares to dominate movie screens for the next month or so comes “French & Saunders: Lord of the Rings,” a modest effort to deflate some of the epic’s more pretentious inclinations.
Created by the British comedy team of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders (the latter best-known for her sitcom “Absolutely Fabulous”), this parody opens with some inept special-effects grunts trying to figure out how to create a fearsome army boasting half a million soldiers. Ants should do the trick, they figure, if you scratch that fearsome part from the equation.
Elsewhere, French and Saunders make comic hay out of the techniques employed in the first film to distort the proportionate sizes of Ian McKellen and Elijah Wood as they played the grand wizard Gandalf and wee hobbit Frodo. They relentlessly skewer the litany of goofy names and complicated mythology running through the story — the most convoluted narrative wheel-spinning since the pages of “begats” in the Old Testament.
The characters themselves get bored relating all this tongue-twisting minutiae. And, apropos of nothing in particular, they take shots at Teletubbies, Madonna, U2’s Bono and Harry Potter. It’s fairly funny stuff, but sort of truncated — French and Saunders barely wade halfway into the movie. They’d better keep up — Jackson’s already completed six hours of his masterpiece; French and Saunders have only mocked 30 minutes.
Suzanne writes: I get a e-mail magazine from Tivo, for Tivo subscribers. This bit was in my e-mail box today (December 4th, 2002).
Sneak a behind-the-scenes preview of “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” the second installment of director Peter Jackson’s much-anticipated cinematic trilogy. You’ll catch an extended trailer of the stunning film and exclusive one-on-one interviews with select members of the cast who answer questions in a language that only TiVo subscribers will truly understand. Coming to a living room near you in Showcases*, beginning December 6. Look for exclusive cast interviews starting 12/13.
Daddy Twofoot sends us this text from USA Today’s promo for the Weekend Edition.
Exclusive USA WEEKEND /Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers poster This one-of-a-kind collectible introduces three new characters and depicts a key scene in the continuing epic adventure of Hobbit Frodo Baggins’ heroic quest to destroy the all-powerful One Ring – and with it, the evil Sauron’s rule over once-idyllic Middle-earth.
The poster is styled after what the film industry calls a “one-sheet,” an image designed to give a movie an identity. Unlike the official theater one-sheet for The Two Towers, our special poster not only features warrior-princess Éowyn, her downtrodden uncle, King Théoden, and the shifty, One Ring-obsessed Gollum (characters who will be seen for the first time in this sequel to last year’s Oscar-nominated The Fellowship of the Ring), but it further reveals an image not used in any other Two Towers marketing materials: that of soldiers guarding the city of Osgiliath, where Hobbits Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) are taken after being captured.
There are 10 characters from the first film, including Frodo, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Arwen (Liv Tyler) and the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen). The poster is bordered with verse from the original Tolkien books, a portion of which is rendered in Elvish, the language of Elves.
Hey, guys, well, I guess I’ll drop in my two cents about this flick as well. I came in with a lot of pre-conceived ideas of what was going to be in this film, based on the trailers I have seen and the book.
There are some things missing, especially from the trailers. Pretty much all of the dialogue from the four-minute theatrical preview that was on FOTR is not in the film. Also, the Ents are not given enough screen time, if you ask me. The only Ent that is named in the movie is Treebeard, so there is no mention of Quickbeam.
I was a bit suprised that PJ intercut the battle of Helm’s Deep with Merry & Pippin talking to Treebeard, but I guess 30 straight minutes of butt-kicking is a bit too much. I wish the Storming of Isengard would have been a bit more built up, like Helm’s Deep was, but it’s still cool. In fact, if you go back and watch the 4 minute preview, you can see Saruman when he runs to the window of Orthanc and realizes his fortress is being destroyed. The look on his face is priceless!
There is also a bit of tension when everyone thinks Aragorn falls off a cliff and dies after the Warg attack, but that’s okay. I guess people who haven’t read the book might think he really buys the farm that early. The Arwen/Elrond/Galadriel stuff is great. I wish there had been more Gandalf/Saruman in this movie, but I think PJ is saving that for ROTK. This is really Aragorn’s show, as it shows him trying to be a real leader, even if he pisses off Theoden in the process. Gimli is great fun (best line “Don’t tell the Elf!”).
But, the real suprise for me is Gollum. This little guy can act. Andy Serkis and Weta digital turn in a performance that makes Yoda look as exciting as a game of Pong. The scenes where Gollum is arguing with himself (think of Willem Dafoe’s mirror scene in Spider-Man) really sent chills up my spine. The hurt he conveys when he thinks “master” has deceived him really touches a nerve.
Other random thoughts The scenes with Faramir needed to be cut a bit. By the time Faramir decided to let Frodo go, I wasn’t interested anymore. I wanted to get back to Helm’s Deep. Also, the Nazgul aren’t as terrifying in this movie, but again, maybe PJ is saving that for the Pelennor fields in ROTK. I think someone else mentioned it, but the movie ends right after the battle of Helm’s Deep, although Gollum alludes to Shelob, saying something like, “SHE can take care of them!”
Having said all that, this movie is amazing. As good as the first one, but more entertaining. I don’t think any fans of FOTR will be disappointed. I can’t wait to see it again, and again, and again…
TORn staffer MrCere (Our Line Party God) had the opportunity to see the Two Towers yesterday. Here’s what he thought:
Dear fellow TORNados – I saw a movie yesterday and wanted to write you all a review as spoiler free as possible. I feel a great fellowship with you and wanted to share as soon and as well as possible. Here is my attempt.
How much can the eye and the mind take in? Is there a point where images and words overload the brain? Like Fellowship Of THe Ring, The Two Towers is a fully loaded, double barrel blast of a three hour film.
The Two Towers probably will require a second viewing, and a third (fourth!) before some viewers (me) can really taste, digest and fathom the experience that the film is. There are moments of brilliance to be sure, moments that some lovers of the movie’s root literature will choke on, and moments of beauty, horror, complete coolness, humor and subtlety that confirm director Peter Jackson as a cinema master.
I must state my personal stand on things Tolkien, both film and book, before diving into the meat of things because as hard as I try, some of my own prejudices will seep into the written word. I hold the book in the highest regard but were I to be the very man in charge of a Rings film, I too would make changes. Books and film are two very different mediums and to tell the best story..well..blah..blah..blah, you know what I mean. In short, I don’t fault the film for being different. I confess too that after watching “Fellowship” I was almost bewildered because my internal voice was busy doing checks and counter checks, analysis and bouncing things around. Deja vu all over again.
So anyway, I actually can’t wait to see what Peter Jackson does post Rings. He is a craftsman and this film has the look and feel of him all over it. Sometimes I just actually laughed out loud not at the humor in the film but at what I was actually seeing on film. The opening made me giggle like it was my junior prom because I was agog at the sheer audacity of the challenge PJ and company decided to tackle when any of a 100 film-making shortcuts might also have told the story. Instead, we see…well, that would be telling. No shortcuts for PJ. How cocky was the man and his team to storyboard this sequence and commit to making it come to life on the screen? Amazing.
VERY MINOR SPOILERS REGARDING STORY STRUCTURE
Our film is a weaving of different plots in different places and probably at different times. We have Sam and Frodo and Gollum, Aragorn and Legolas and Gimli, a bit of Gandalf, a bit of both of the film’s two towers, Elrond and Galadriel and Arwen. Much like the novel, PJ sticks with a plot line and characters, builds some tension and then jumps away to another set of problems barely leaving us time to catch our breath. The jumping effect reminded me very much of the book because it makes the view/reader think “No! Don’t leave,” and moments or paragraphs later we have forgotten what we left and are fully invested in where we are.
Interestingly this film, which does indeed feel like the same movie after a one-year intermission, emphasizes different characters than does Fellowship. Ian McKellen’s Gandalf the Grey is gone and Gandalf the White is more focused and less warm than his predecessor. Part of this is performance and part of it is story telling. Gandalf is very present in the story but he isn’t quite so near or at the heart of it as he was, and I miss him.
Frodo of course is still the ring-bearer and his relationship with Sam and Smeagol/Gollum, although not as action oriented as the other sections of the movie is emotionally weighty. Wood probably will not get the acting attention he deserves because much of what he must play in the film is a gradual deepening of being under the effects of the ring. His performance is excellent and central but also natural and understated enough that it doesn’t punch you in the face and win him awards, but it certainly serves the story. I cannot fathom another person playing Frodo. Sam is given life here when compared to Fellowship and Astin and the character soar. Along with Gollum (I am coming to that later) the three have a fascinating on-screen dynamic.
Aragorn (Viggo) begins to carry the weight of the plot (and the world) on his shoulders. I would say in fact that it is his movie and obviously in the next installment, he will indeed be ‘the man’. It stuns me to think that Viggo joined the cast last minute and this extremely central character might have been somebody else. I think I would have been perfect for the role (in my dreams) but I can but shake my head when trying to envision somebody else in his place.
Gimli is also beefed up a bit in this film and while often used for much needed laughs, he is likeable and heartwarming. Legolas is a killing machine once again but the dwarf gobbles up the screen when he is on it. There is a real sense of fellowship with our three hunters which seems an obvious film-making choice but I feared it would be overwhelmed by plot. It was not.
Merry and Pippin, while definitely present, don’t experience quite the same rigors as the other characters. Their time with the orcs is harrowing and I must toss mighty praise to Richard Taylor and his WETA crew for the wonderment of the orcs. How easy it would have been to just make templated orcs but they have them in all their variety and personality and variance and we get to hear them speak and interact rather than just growl and die. The two hobbits grow up just a bit, but I am betting their time is coming in the sure-to-be four-hour Return Of The King.
Treebeard is better than I feared he would be. His character must be considered one of the most difficult or THE most difficult to translate to film and it mostly worked. I am a BIG fan of John Rhys-Davies and his voice performance is quite fine but the problem is that it is still his voice. I could hear Gimli too much and while it didn’t ruin things it wasn’t the best choice. I had great fun seeing other Ents and there is a scene that was more fun to watch than a barrel full of monkeys (whatever that means.)
Now then, there are changes from the books. One is particular was quite jarring to me.
SPOILER IN THE NEXT SENTENCE
Our friend Faramir interacts with Frodo and makes some choices regarding him and the ring which were a major departure from the written word and jarred me a bit from the film. I know the story tellers had reasons but I couldn’t figure out the whys of this decision and frankly the sequence left me a bit cold. I predict it will anger some reader-viewers quite a lot.
Other changes, specifically Arwen/Aragorn were superb. All the internet horror stories about Arwen at Helm’s Deep are hogwash but there is some play between her and Elrond and Aragorn that had great emotional depth and for me was one of the best parts about the film. In this instance PJ has accentuated a deeply hidden theme in the book and made it real and vital to the audience. By dealing with the Elves as he does he gives greater depth to the dilemma they face and raises the stakes for all of Middle-Earth. He presents the sadness of the Elves to us beautifully. I am tempted to say that some of the Arwen/Aragorn moments are my favorite in the flick. Ask me again after viewing #3 for confirmation.
There are some other problems I had with the film, but all are minor and may not bother others and may freak out some. During the Helm’s Deep sequence our three hunters were just a little too heroic for my taste. I know Aragorn is a sword master and Legolas is Spider-Man with hair but I don’t think I felt their jeopardy as I should have. KillingUruk Hai was a bit too easy. Sometimes during the battles CG characters were seen as just that. I know the details were many but I just sometimes caught myself saying, “uups, that was fake.”
Speaking of fake, a good portion of this film hinges on Gollum. In CG history (film history), fans hate Jar Jar Binks more than anything. He ‘feels’ fake to the viewer and gums up the movie. In my view what makes him fake however was not his look but his character or should I say caricature. He was a clown in an alien suit with badly written dialog and he just felt out of place for us in the Star Wars universe.
Gollum faces the same challenge, being an impossible character to physically become. The performance of Gollum – which includes his voice and gestures as well as his gait and facial expressions – is quite excellent. He is well played by Andy Serkis but also by the animators who breath life into his face and actions. Still, he is discernibly CG. He isn’t Jarjaring but you CAN tell that this character isn’t quite alive sometimes. Having said all that, the character works well for the plot, is a real being we believe in emotionally if not 100 percent physically and was still amazing. His face shots especially told much more than the dialog.
RANDOM STUFF The so called “exorcism” is beautifully done and not what folks are making it to be. Bernard Hill is great. Miranda Otto is radiant and uniquely beautiful and if anybody has her phone number I want to invite her to dinner right away. Brad Dourif’s Grima Wormtounge is spot on. The Wargs, although not perfect in wide shots, are pretty cool and convincing, especially in close ups. There is a camera shot (spoiler free) when Frodo is in the marshes, of somebody’s gloved hand that pulls out to a widescreen overview that is do danged cool I nearly laughed out loud. The film has magic in it.
THE REAL QUESTION Was it as good as Fellowship? My first impressions which I reserve the right to change is No. It isn’t as good as Fellowship, it is better. There is more room for air in the this film and it isn’t quite as dense, although it is far from airy. If I can get past one major plot change on subsequent viewings, there will be no doubt about it.
