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