Criticisms of the Lord of the Rings Film Trilogy - Part Two

PART TWO - THE TWO TOWERS

The Two Towers is the part of the Lord of the Rings that was most radically changed in its adaptation from book to film, and in my opinion it was a change for the worse. The biggest change is the fact that the film version of the Two Towers ends shortly after the battle of Helm's Deep, with Frodo and Samwise on the road to the haunted city of Minas Morgul. For those who have not read the book, this is basically the same as cutting off the final third section of the story, and in the case of Frodo and Sam it really sells the entire series short.

If you haven't read the books, you may be thinking: "But wouldn't the Two Towers be an incredibly long movie?" The answer to this question is a resounding: No. For in changing events that happen halfway through the book into the climax (Helm's Deep, Frodo, Sam, and Gollum held prisoner by Faramir) meant that they then had to literally create more story to fill about an hour's length of film to build up to these events.

I'm not entirely sure why the film makers felt that this was anything resembling a good decision, especially because it creates a huge problem in the next film, The Return of the King. It also robs the film of the book's incredible cliffhanger, in which Gollum betrays Frodo and Sam to the giant spider Shelob, who "kills" Frodo. We are left with Samwise facing the near impossible task of rescuing Frodo from the tower of Cirith Ungol. Certainly a grim, Empire Strikes Back ending if there ever was one. People would have been dying to see the next film! Dying!

Yes, one of the reasons that the film makers did this was because the timelines of the two main stories (Fellowship remnants on one side and Frodo and Sam on the other) do not link perfectly up in the books, and Frodo and Sam's timeline would be way ahead of the other characters... But I imagine that most people watching the film would not notice this discrepancy. Frankly, the only place that it would really be noticeable would be the moment when Pippin and Gandalf see the signal from Minas Morgul light up the sky while Frodo and Sam cower at Minas Morgul's bridge.

But to go into much more detail:

- Right off the bat Frodo once again in treated to a magical close up of the eye of Sauron, which appears to have been slightly redesigned for this film, perhaps so that it does not appear so vagina like. I stand by my earlier statements about the overuse of Sauron's eye in these films.

- Andy Serkis delivers a wonderful performance as Gollum in this film, even though I'm predisposed to prefer the Brother Theodore version from the old Rankin Bass cartoons from the 80s, but I do have a few issues with the character. First, the Gollum of this film doesn't much resemble what little we saw of Gollum in the Fellowship of the Ring, and I like continuity. Second, his arrival seems rather abrupt. As previously stated, we haven't seen much of the character since the mines of Moria sequence. Would it have killed the film makers to have left in a little of the scenes in which Gollum continues to stalk the Fellowship? Since this film wasn't preceded by an adaptation of the Hobbit we can't just assume that the audience knows who Gollum is, exactly.

- I've always taken the title of the book the Two Towers to refer to the two towers which feature heavily in their climaxes: Namely, Orthanc and Cirith Ungol, the orc fortress near the lair of Shelob. Of course, since the film ends before our heroes reach these locations, Peter Jackson's writing team was forced to come up with an alliance between Saruman and Sauron and their respective towers. Nevermind, of course, that by trying to win the one ring for himself Saruman has essentially gone rogue from even Sauron's forces, and is now on no one's side but his own. But, hey, whatever.

- The burning of the Rohan village occurs shortly after Saruman's narration, and is basically the beginning of many scenes which were intended to add more subplots and complexity to the film so that the battle of Helm's Deep can serve as the climax. I don't know about you, but frankly I'd have rather seen the battle of the Fords of Isen, in which Theoden's son Theodred is mortally wounded. Theodred's death is very important to the story, so why not show us what happened rather than focus on a family of Rohan? With the obvious exception of the Hobbits, these books are not really about "the little guy." Showing us the Battle of the Fords of Isen also would have given us a good opportunity to see Saruman's forces win a battle, something they aren't very good at in these films.

- Probably in an effort to help set up the new characters coming into the story, we have a collection of scenes which introduces Eomer, Eowyn, Grima, and Theoden, leading up to Eomer's banishment. Frankly I would have rather met Eomer for the first time when we do in the books: With Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. All of the information covered in this section could have easily been handled in the way that it is in the books: At Edoras.

- More modern dialouge (see my review of The Fellowship of the Ring). I have a hard time hearing orcs say that they want to take "a breather" without then picturing them wearing spandex and getting in a few more reps at the stairmaster.

- "Looks like meat's back on the menu boys!" I don't know what kind of dining Uruk-Hai were used to back at Isengard, but I seriously doubt that they had menus. Actually, I doubt that anyone in middle earth, even the richest merchant, could eat at an establishment that had menus. This is prehistory we're talking about, remember?

- Eomer's sword falls out of its scabbard as he is about to ride away from Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas. This is actually a movie flub, but its very noticeable. Sure, they didn't put the sound of it clattering to the ground in the hopes that maybe we wouldn't see it, but I think a retake might have been in order. Isn't Eomer going to need that sword?

- The return of the "false death" trend continues with its seventh victim(s): Merry and Pippin who we believe have been killed in the battle between the Uruk-Hai and the Rohirrim. I actually really like the way Aragorn reconstructs what really happened, so I guess I'll let this one slide.

- When the Nazgul return "on wings," as Gollum says, do we really need to see a flashback of the Witchking stabbing Frodo scene? Did they honestly think that we would have forgotten this incident?

- I think the scene in which we first see the Black Gate (or the Morannon as it is more formally called) is rather abrupt. I'm sure that the Towers of the Teeth alone would have been visible for some time before they clamber up the rock to see it, accompanied by the blaring Mordor theme music. Couldn't we have had some more build up? C'mon Jackson, you're trying to kill time here, remember?

- Elvish cloaks do indeed make you hard to see, magically blending in well with both rock and stone, but I don't buy that a pair of Easterlings would be unable to see something right under their noses, no matter how good the cloaks. And perhaps its just the editing, but it looks like the two Easterlings are right on top of them even before they pull the cloak over themselves. This serves to chip away at the credibility of the bad guys, which is always a bad move in my book. In a scene that is supposed to basically crush the hopes of the characters entering Mordor conventionally, why do this? If it were this easy to hide then maybe Frodo and Sam are right about making some crazed dash for the Black Gate before it closes.

- By the way, I never pictured the Black Gate to be an actual gate in the conventional sense, but more of a massive wall with a gate built into it, flanked by towers.

- The scene in which Grima comes on to Eowyn clumsily is unnecessary, clumsily handled, and also slightly confusing. Its meant to show us that Grima, the master manipulator, knows Eowyn's dark side, but what is her dark side?

- Grima has a quartet of flunkies who apparently have managed to stop an entire court from coming to the aid of their king. I fight this concept to be ridiculous. Even more ridiculous is the fact that a fist fight breaks out in the king's chamber and some kind of alarm isn't raised to protect the king.

- In the books Theoden is not literally possessed by the spirit of Saurman. Its an interesting concept, and I love the way that Theoden morphs back into his own self, but frankly its a mistake. Why, do you ask? Well, for one thing it robs us of the real reasons that Theoden isn't doing anything about Saruman, which are then transplanted into later parts of the film, and just make Theoden generally seem like a dick. In the books Theoden is much like King Arthur, an older man who's kingdom is falling into ruin all around him, and who is languishing in despair when our heroes arrive. His son, Theodred is dead, an event which the movie Theoden doesn't even realize has occured due to his magical possession. And Grima has convinced Theoden that he is old and feeble, and that he needs Grima's care, much like one of those mothers that poisons their own children so that they can play the part of a caring mother (See the film the Sixth Sense.) Gandalf arrives and is able to slowly convince Theoden that he is not as old as he thinks he is, and that there is still some glory to be won by fighting, even in the face of certain destruction, something that the film Theoden needs to be constantly reminded of by Aragorn throughout the rest of the film. I feel that this robs Theoden of much of his character, which in the books helps to serve as an example of the kind of king Gondor currently needs. Instead we get Theoden the dick, the kind of man that I question anyone would serve with much joy.

- In the film, Theoden almost kills Grima for his treachery, and has to be stopped by Aragorn. In the books Theoden, even in the face of Grima's lust for Eowyn, lets him leave with a horse. It is a sign of how much he depended on Grima, and trusted him, and speaks volumes about the difference between the "good guys" and the minions of Sauron.

- I like the scene in which Theoden grieves for his son, I just feel like it should have occurred before he was taken out of his stupor by Gandalf.

- Both Gandalf and Gimli protest the move to hold up at Helm's Deep, saying that Theoden will be leading the Rohirrim into a trap. But Helm's Deep is basically a fortress which Saruman will have to take to secure his conquest of Rohan. Going there and defending it, particularly since it is a fortress that has never fallen to an enemy, seems like a pretty good idea to me, especially considering that an open battle with the Uruk-Hai's numbers has so far proven to be suicide (Remember Theodred's death?)

- That said, Helm's Deep wasn't designed to house civilians, and since it stands in the path of Edoras I'm not certain why Theoden orders the population to converge there. In the books Eowyn is left in charge of the skeleton force to defend the city while the real troops head to head off Saruman's army. She bitterly resents this, since she is a warrior princess, and since she basically blends into the background once she arrives at Helm's Deep I'm not sure why they bothered dragging her there, except for help kill time with her romantic subplot with Aragorn.

- There is a warg attack in the books, but it occurs in The Fellowship of the Ring, after the Fellowship has left Rivendell. Here it just serves to kill a lot of time. Its unnecessary.

- The warg rider commander has some dialogue that apparently wasn't good enough to be in the film, but we can still see him clearly responding to Saruman's command to summon the warg riders before we close up on him. Its distracting.

- Frodo's seduction by the ring in this movie seems rather accelerated, as if the filmmakers wanted to make certain that we would understand its power, and realize the danger of Frodo becoming like Gollum. In the books, Frodo is literally the last person to be tempted by the ring, because he is a person (a hobbit rather) with a very strong sense of innocence and good, even more so than his uncle bilbo, who stole the ring from Gollum and lied about it to others. That, after all, is why Frodo is trusted to be the ring bearer, and it is why it is so horrifying to us when he finally does end up succumbing to its power in the heart of Mount Doom. For that reason I think that Frodo's early major warning signs that he too is a ring junkie in this film serve to lessen the impact of the more important moments which occur in Return of the King.

- There's no way around it guys, the Haradrim (literally Southrons) who appear in both this movie and the Return of the King are clearly white, but in the books they are very clearly black. I imagine this change was made in the hopes of not offending people of color, but since a majority of the films dread lock wearing uruks are black skinned I imagine that having actual black people would at least help to differentiate the from literal black skinned monsters. Additionally, the Haradrim costumes resemble too much those of the Easterlings seen earlier.

- Aragorn's flashback to time spent with Arwen actually brings us back to events that apparently took place during the Council of Elrond. This, again, wastes time and adds in the plot wrinkle that Aragorn doesn't feel like he can allow Arwen to stay in Middle Earth and watch him die, and that she should go with her people into the Undying Lands. This is merely a ploy to keep Arwen involved in the story, and to remind the audience why Aragorn isn't snogging with Eowyn. I don't completely dislike its inclusion in the film, but I think the sub plot concerning Arwen leaving for the Undying Lands could have been pared down considerably to save time.

- The wargs look like they've been rolled around in modeling flock, and more resemble a cross between a hyena and a bear than a large wolf, which is essentially what a warg is.

- Gimli is used a source of comedic relief in this film quite a bit, and for the most part I'm okay with that, but I draw the line at the scene in which Gimli is under a warg under a goblin under another warg. Its just too ridiculous.

- The eighth "false death" of these films is Aragorn being pulled off of a cliff by a warg whose harness he is stuck to. It is also the worst of the "false deaths," for two reasons: First of all, the warg battle doesn't occur in the books, so obviously there is no "Aragorn falls of a cliff pulled by a warg" scene in the book. Secondly, this particular "false death" gives birth to a whole slew of invented scenes which only serve to make the movie longer. I'll list them as they occur.

- "He fell." If someone you knew had died by falling off of cliff during a battle (during which people "fall in battle"), and someone else asked you what had happened to them, would you say this? It just sounds like a pun. Also Aragorn never should have gone over that cliff, so its wasting our time.

- Brego the wonder horse. Are you seriously telling me, Peter Jackson, that Aragorn's horse had the time and sense to go chasing down river after him? Wouldn't have some random Rohan soldier have collected Brego? Why is Aragorn's horse, which wasn't even his until a handful of days ago, so loyal to him? Oh right, because how else would Aragorn escape from this terrible subplot in time to deliver the message that Saruman is coming?

- Halfway through the film Galadriel recaps everything that is going on, as if we had forgotten what was going on, or had been in the bathroom for the last hour. One of the basic rules of film is that you should, whenever possible, show, not tell. And that's what the movie's been trying to do: Show us that Saruman is bad and is sending an army to destroy Rohan. People have been talking about it for the whole movie. We're not that stupid, are we? And if we are, do we even deserve to be watching movies? This speech, a sort of psychic cell phone call to Elrond also introduces the whole Elves come to the rescue sub plot, but more on that later.

- "The ring will go to Gondor." Actually, it shouldn't. And here's why: Because unlike his brother, Boromir, Faramir isn't a dick. At least he isn't in the books. I thought that the film did a good job of making him seem dangerous but essentially good, until he chooses not to let the hobbits go. For the Frodo and Sam plot line, this is the event that serves to stretch out their story so that they don't reach Shelob by the end of the film, and its a real disservice. I've seen the interviews in which the screenwriters call the character of Faramir in the books "boring," but I think they are missing the point. Faramir, not knowing what Frodo is carrying, tells him not to fear, that he would not use one of the Dark Lord's weapons even if it were lying by the highway. When he later learns of the ring, he is indeed severely tempted, but he stands by his earlier statement, realizing at last why his brother came to a bad end, and wishing that he had gone to the Council of Elrond in his brother's place. Basically, this does sort of happen in the film, but only after he's dragged Frodo, Sam, and Gollum all the way to Osgiliath, a place that the hobbits don't even visit in the books. Why? To "increase dramatic tension." Yeah...

- How do we know Saruman's forces are coming? Aragorn sees them approaching while he is traveling to Helm's Deep on Brego the wonder horse. But didn't we already know they were coming, when that little Rohirrim boy and girl rode to Edoras? Or when Gandalf said they were? Or how about when Theodred, the king's son, died after fighting Saruman's troops? Oh wait, we still have some time to kill.

- Of course we need a reunion scene, now that Aragorn is back from his "death," and we need to be reminded, again, that Eowyn loves Aragorn but he loves Arwen. Because we obviously forgot by now.

- Theoden continues to appear to be a dick as he prepares for the siege, refusing to send for help, and generally seeming as though he is being too overly optimistic in the face of Saruman's approaching horde. Couldn't he just have acted, you know, like a wise and noble king?

- Peter Jackson's kids are cute, and I loved seeing them dressed up as Hobbit children in the first film, but they really tend to stand out as refugees at Helm's Deep. Doesn't someone else have a pair of kids who need screen time?

- Theoden, still reluctant and unsure of himself is being dressed in his armor by Gamling when he asks, in a looney sounding voice, "and do you trust your king?" Frankly, my answer would be: Uh, not anymore, my kooky friend. I keep feeling like they were setting Theoden up to be totally incompetent, only to revert to the real Theoden in the next film.

- Elves at Helm's Deep. A lot of people love that the elves come to mankind's aid at Helm's Deep, but I don't. And here's why: First off, it kind of ruins the mystique of the whole "Last Alliance of Men and Elves" that defeated Sauron 2,500 years previously. Secondly: Elves, far reduced in number, wouldn't be able to spare troops to defend Gondor, let alone Rohan (which is basically a backwater kingdom), when their own homes are sure to be under siege by Sauron. In the books these Elves would have been defending Lothlorien from another ringwraith led army out of nearby Dol Guldur. Thirdly: The presence of Elves at Helm's Deep really calls into question the ability of Elves. Had these Elves really been present at this battle I would have thought that the Uruk-Hai wouldn't have stood a chance. An elf, after all, is worth possibly a hundred orcs in battle. To support this claim, consider Legolas: Sure, he's a prince among elves, but he's a good example of what elves are like. So why the heck do these Lorien elves die off in droves if they are all the near equal of Legolas? Oh, right, because the uruks are supposed to win the early part of this battle. Notice as well that no elves survive, at least that we can see, while scores of Rohirrim do. I find that rather hard to believe.

- Haldir, who is clearly a captain of Galadriel, brings word from Elrond of Rivendell? Shouldn't he bring word from his own boss, Galadriel? Whatever.

- No where in the description of the Battle of Helm's Deep does Tolkien state that Legolas slid down a flight of steps, surfing on a shield, and I find it rather ridiculous. Legolas is unbearably cool in the first film, and all without pulling off a crazy stunt like this, which seems jarringly modern. Frankly, I was hoping that Gimli would really come into his own in this battle, especially since he wins the orc slaying contest 42 to Legolas' 41, and is treated as a buffoon much of the time. Come on, Peter, couldn't you have given the dwarves their due?

- To kill more time, and to wrap all of the early climaxes of the film into one package, Jackson has the Ents decide not to fight, forcing Merry and Pippin to trick him into seeing Saruman's devastation to enter into the war. Never mind the fact that the entire reason they are holding the Entmoot in the books is because Treebeard wishes the Ents to stop Saruman's destruction of Fangorn forest.

- As stated in my earlier review of the Fellowship of the Ring, I marvel that we have time for the second part of the dwarf tossing sub plot, but not enough time for the actual events of the books.

- The whole episode with Frodo and Sam at Osgiliath, the former capital of Gondor, is wholly invented. The film makers even wink at us with Sam's line: "By rights we shouldn't even be here." While they are there, Frodo continues to go mad under the rings power too early, going loopy and offering one of the nazgul the one ring. Offering it to him! As far as I'm concerned, doing this really should have ended the quest, since you know for certain Sauron would bend all of his strength there to recover the ring, and Frodo and Sam would have never been able to pass through the Morgul vale. The secrecy of the ring's location is, after all, very important, and Sauron is currently distracted by the possibility that the ring may have fallen into Saruman's possession. Oh well, it made for a good visual at least, even though its patently ridiculous.

- Theoden continues to be incompetent, hesitating to evacuate the civilians, and seemingly certain that the end has come. The Theoden of the books still thought he was riding out to his death, but he was glad to have such a glorious ending after so long a time spent in inactivity.

- "What can men do against such reckless hate?" I don't know, Theoden, fight it maybe?

- After Theoden is finally brought out of his move long stupor, he and his handful of men bravely crash out of the Hornburg to slay as many uruks as they can. A glorious moment, but I have a hard time accepting the scene in which they ride down a causeway, knocking down at least a hundred uruks as they charge. A handful of uruks I could have accepted, but a hundred? And notice that not a single good guy gets knocked off either at this point? What, are their horses made out of titanium?

- I would have liked to see Saruman's remaining forces at least try to put something of a defense in the face of the ent attack.

- When the river rushes in to drown Isengard, the single ent that we saw lit on fire earlier rushes towards the water to put himself out. It always got a laugh from the audiences I saw this with, and this is not a scene I want to see played for laughs.

- Frodo almost kills Sam when he is brought out of his ring induced daze. Sorry Peter Jackson, but the time for this to occur is in The Return of the King, at the top of the Tower of Cirith Ungol, when Samwise has the ring and hesitates to give it back to Frodo. Placed here it just makes Frodo seem totally overwhelmed by the ring's power before they even entered Mordor.

- Sam's speech at the end of the film is poorly written, hackneyed, and sadly ruins a great moment that should have occurred in the film of Return of the King: Namely, the conversation about whether or not they will appear in stories someday which is placed onto the end of this stinker of a speech, and which immediately proceeds the scene with Shelob. More on this next time.

- Gandalf says that Sauron will be furious that Saruman's forces failed, but actually, Saruman isn't a huge part of Sauron's plan, and the two don't seem to be very closely allied in the books, but the film makers want to foreshadow the bigger threat to come in the next movie, so we somehow can see the angry flash of either Mount Doom or Sauron's eye from here.

- The plan Gollum comes up with at the end of the film (let Shelob kill Frodo and Sam and then steal the ring from their corpses) was actually his plan all along. That's why he suggested going through the pass of Cirith Ungol in the first place, back at the Black Gate. But since Frodo and Sam's story must end here, I guess they had to try and maintain the cliffhanger that they lost when they cut out the whole end of the book. Hmmm, maybe they shouldn't have done that.

Stay Tuned For Part Three: The Return of the King