Visually the whole thing was stunning, but the script was piss poor. Characters and plotlines were far more mangled than in Fellowship. It was a great movie, but the screenplay was highly suspect. Any complaints I would have with the production itself would still come back to the fact that Jackson and Co. went way too far messing up the book this time.
Why do we have to wait a whole year to see the REAL movie is what I wanna know? The Extended DVD of FOTR was a MUCH better film than the theatrical release, and so too with The Two Towers I would imagine, but to never get to see the 3.5 hour version in the cinema is sad. Who the hell cares if it's an extra half hour? I'd gladly stay for another whole hour if it meant more justice could be done to the story. Have a freaking intermission if you want.
But this time they can't blame cutting for length; they made phony scenes that ate up plenty of screen time. Hey, the Warg battle was great and I enjoyed it, but "killing off" Aragorn was simply unnecessary and pandering to the audience. If they wanted to have warg battle why not put one where there really IS one - as the Fellowship approaches Caradhras! Sheesh!
Faramir's role was wrecked and taking Frodo and Sam to Osgilliath was just plain stupid and pointless. But I'm more ticked at they way they handled Treebeard. He's more of a cartoon than anything, and I don't mean the way he looks. (although his eyes should be green, not orange) That nonsensical meddling of the hobbits in getting the Ents to attack Isengard was B.S. Treebeard was fully aware of Saruman's business and was pissed off at the Orcs, he didn't need to be told by two halflings fer crying out loud! John Rhys Davies doing the voice was also a dunderheaded move as well. Besides the fact that he also plays Gimli I just didn't like how he interpreted the character. He played him as scary and grim rather than wise and bemusing, as Treebeard really is. I also didn't like the fact that he killed the Orc either. Visually the Ents totally kick ass, but the writing is damn awful this time.
I was really impressed with how accurate the first hour or so of the film was doing, but it kinda started to fall apart when Gandalf came to Theoden. Holy over the top makeup! Geez, he looks like he would turn to dust if you breathed on him! That bit about him "magically" curing him of Saruman's spell was cheesy. Wormtongue was responsible for that, not Saruman via some magic spell. Hmph. And Gimli and Legolas beating up the guards? What the hell? Crap!
Gollum was a total wonder, and the day may come sooner than I thought when they are able to make a believable digital human. The voice was a bit too scratchy, I preffered the BBC radio actor's voice better. But still, quite good.
The Extended DVD will have MANY ills to cure this time, and I'm not so sure it will end up as good of a repair as FOTR was.
I just finished reading The Silmarillion recently (hey, it only took me a year!) - now THAT would be a great movie! That one's so dry and heavy that it could use some movie spicing up! Lots of scenes could be invented given the more historical narrative nature of the book. I'd love to see Morgoth and Fingolfin having at it.
