I’ve seen IMDB:The Two Towers (2002)!

The Two Towers poster I’ve now seen the second film in the Tolkien triology — it’s a great film just like the first. You’ll find a lot of information about all three film at http://www.lordoftherings.net/.

If you don’t know this already, then this second act of the triology tells the story about how friendly people of Mittle-earth discovers the union between the Two Towers: Orthanc where the once-good wizard Saruman lives and Barad-dûr, around which the Dark Lord concentrates all evil in Mittle-earth. It is also in this film, that you hear about the journey of Frodo and Sam into Mordor, followed by the strange creature Gollum whoes real name is Sméagol.

The film has to keep track of all these events, many of which take place many miles apart. It does this by cutting back and forth the different groups of the shattered Fellowship. In the book you follow each group for a long time, and then switches to the other group, but that would probably feel akward in a film, so the way it’s done is probably the best way.

But I couldn’t help being distracted by the fact, that there’s so much going on in this film. I’ve read the books twice, so I knew the characters, but it must have been strange for some of the others that were with me. You’re introduced to a number of characters in the film, but you only get a little glimpse of their history. This is the weakness of the film-media: it would have taken a film many times longer than the current (already very long) films to present all the material in the books. I’m not blaming the films for being to short (although I already long for the extended version of this movie), I’m more blaming the media. But I guess it will always be this way with books: there’s so much depth that you just cannot show in a film — you have to read it yourself.

The special effects were good, and I really liked the Ents and Gollum, both fully computer generated characters. I’ve always had trouble visualizing the Ents because they aren’t described in that much detail in the books. So I wasn’t sure what to expect of the film, but I think the result is very good. The Ents look like very old trees and they talk very slowly and with much care. They also walk slowly, taking their time with each step, but because they take big steps, they’re able to travel quickly from one end of Fangorn Forest to another. Gollum, or Sméagol as he was once called, is fully computer generated and looks stunning! His face has the possible most lifelike computer-generated eyes ever seen in a film, and they really help convay his feelings when he is having discussions with himself.

The trip started out as a small one with just me and Mikkel Krøigård, but when I talked with people at [Skejbygård][], then they were interested too. So we ended up being Christina Strøhl, Camilla, Torben Classen, Camilla Johnsen, Nina Ratenburg, and Helene. After the movie Mikkel and I went to Andreas Danielsen to have a Christmas Lunch with the others from DAIMI:dArkOS. We ended up getting a little lost, so we came terribly late, but we did get some of the nice food people had made for the lunch. So it was a long and good day… –Martin Geisler

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