The Two Towers: some brief reactions
OK, I'll take the plunge and try to put some of my thoughts on The Two Towers into writing. These opinions will no doubt be subject to change as the weeks move by and I sit through more viewings of the film (it took me several weeks of waffling to decide that I really liked Fellowship, and I suspect the same will hold true with this movie as well).
It has rarely been this difficult for me to decide what I thought of a film. On the one hand, it cannot be denied that this was a tremendous movie. It was more exciting, moving, and epic than anything I've seen since Fellowship. On the other hand, during parts of the movie I felt as if the Middle Earth I was watching wasn't really the Middle Earth of the books, the one I grew up reading about.
It wasn't the altered or added scenes that bothered me--it was the gnawing sense (which began to grow in me during Fellowship) that these developing characters are moving more and more away from their portrayals in the original books. Who is this Elrond who loathes men and holds Aragorn in contempt? Why is this Faramir such a jerk? Why is this Theoden such a coward even after his release from Wormtongue's deception? Why is this Aragorn a doubt-ridden loner who doesn't appear to be driven by any particular purpose? Perhaps these new, improved versions of the characters make for a better film. But at times they seem to bear little resemblance to their literary counterparts, and so it's hard to truly enjoy many of the scenes in Two Towers without wanting to apologize to Tolkien for what we're doing to his beloved creations.
Ah, but lunch is over and I must return to work. More later, as I piece together my opinions.