The Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers (2002) MOVIE REACTION) Blu Ray Extended Edition
Added 2025-07-05 11:58:12 +0000 UTC
Comments
Love your reaction, Jay. You really get invested in the emotions! Interestingly, I came across a photo of two killer whales at Orca Guardians with the caption "Boromir and Faramir." There is no way to post a picture here, so here is a link to where I did post it.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10221691554478243&set=a.3756979943161
Chryss Guiler
2025-07-30 15:31:00 +0000 UTC
This is actually my favourite of the trilogy! You just gotta love Legolas & Gimli đ And I remember seeing this in the Cinema and at the battle of Helms deep it felt like the Uruk-hai army was marching in the room. đ It's such well-made movies.
Erika
2025-07-14 21:49:52 +0000 UTC
First, for the record, Iâve enjoyed all your reactions. You do a great job with the essentials, you donât have many annoying habits, your quirks are entertaining & fun to watch and you obviously enjoy what youâre watching; your comments are short and appropriate, and anything of length is appropriately in the intro or outro. And your attitude towards your supporters is exemplary.
If thereâs a fault to be found itâs that you donât instantly follow suggestions âIâ personally make, but nobodyâs perfect⊠đ€Ł
Now on to The Two Towers. Remember, this is an adaptation and the film is an interpretation of JRRTâs LOTR. It was extremely well done, with marvelous acting and brilliant cinematographyâand the sets/locations were outstanding. The screenplay modifications are the subject of debate, especially in how they depart from Tolkienâs deep legendarium in a few places & ways, in jarring changes of character, in the invention of scenes not in Tolkienâs novel, and in the removal of scenesâsome of which Tolkien considered critical (but one Iâm thinking of is from the next movie so you can not see it then đ). In adaptations, all of these things ARE done so itâs not as if Peter Jackson invented some crime. And the criticisms for doing so (from Tolkien âpuristsâ) have been, ah, generous and loud. I understand the reasons heâs given but disagree with most of them. Still, on balance, I feel the trilogy of movies is a brilliant accomplishment and well worth watching. I wish people had read the book first, though, because the movie story will always predominate in their imagination. But such is life. The only true versionâthe Tolkien versionâis in the pages of the book.
As an example: in the book, the Two Towers are Orthanc and Minas Morgul. In the movie, they are Orthanc and Barad DĂ»r. Thatâs a pretty radical shift in emphasis! (The LOTR was intended to be a single volume with six parts. What became the Fellowship had itâs part 2 begin where Frodo regained consciousness in Rivendell. The Two Towers split the story of Aragorn et al and Frodo & Sam. The first part followed Aragorn through⊠action that Jackson moved to the next movie. It is continuous, not broken up. Part 4 follows Frodo to⊠action covered in the next movie! His moving the end-points wasnât crazy; it was a bit jarring for those of us who knew the story well but that fixed itself with the next movie.
Some specifics. Elrond seriously departed from Tolkienâs vision of the fate of the half-elven in his talk with Arwen. As the offspring of elves she lived AS an elf, but as the offspring of half-elven she had an irrevocable choiceâto be made before Elrond departs middle-Earthâwhether to remain elven-kind or become human (mortal). What isnât discussed is the ultimate fate of all elves. They are kind of immortal, not absolutely immortal. Their life is bound to the world, and THAT isnât endless. When the world dies so too will all the elves.
In Tolkienâs universe, the creator god Eru IllĂșvatar, first created greater & lesser angelsâthe Ainur. These were magical, formless beings that existed in the same place IllĂșvatar generally hung about. He lead the Ainur in a great music, a song, that described in notes the complete history of the world. When they were finished he revealed the world they sang into beingâhe showed them that world floating in space. He asked who amongst them wanted to go into the world and experience that history with the proviso that once they descended they must remain until the end. Some volunteered and went downâto discover a seemingly endless flat, featureless plain. They expressed surprise and IllĂșvatar answered âyou must create the world according to the music because time now exists and this is the beginning.â So the Ainur labored, creating the worldâa flat worldâwith three continents separated by great oceans. They took the western continent as their own. The largest continentâthe middle one, hence middle-Earthâwas where Illuvatar buried two races of children he alone created, his children.
The immortal elves and the mortal men. In Tolkienâs world, these beings had two parts: physical bodies (a hroĂ€r) and a spirit or soul (a fĂ«a). The spirit was the special gift as it contained âthe light imperishable.â Death released the spirit but the fate of the spirits for the two races was very different. The greater Ainur in the world were the guardians for IllĂșvatar and were known as the Valar. Their continent, Valinor. The lesser angels were âworkersâ if you would and were known as the Maiar. But they were all IllĂșvatarâs angels. One of the Valar was responsible for all souls liberated from their bodies. A great hall, The Halls of Mandos was made in Valinor, and the souls went there. Human souls used it as a quick transit point and presumably left the circles of the world returning to IllĂșvatar, where it was said they were awaiting a great celebration to be held for the world upon its demise. In the case of elves, who were meant to remain alive, killing their bodies is an offense against IllĂșvatarâs plan. So the spirit is kept in Mandos to heal from dying and, if necessary, to learn to behave better so as not to bring about such an outcome. Then they are returned to a body and life. (The Valar canât create a spirit but a body? No big deal).
Brief aside on Ainur magic: they possess declarative magic of varying strengths. When they exert themselves âthis shall beâ or âthis shall not beâ the world changes according to their demand. Raise a hill? Hill shall be. Create a woods? Woods shall be. Great changes or works required the power of the Valar, like creating entire oceans or uplifting mountain ranges. Or kindling the stars. The Maiar could make most if the modifications under the Valarâs direction. A natural association between individual Vala and groups of Maiar they worked with developed over time.
So elves: they had a life cycle. In human terms it was extremely long but in the end, they became increasingly inactive, began more & more to live in their memories, and finally entered a state of torpor in whichâthough aliveâthey were immobile, remembering past events from their long lives, and waiting for the end of the world. When that time arrives their bodies will die, their torpor will end and their spirits will return to IllĂșvatar for the celebrationâŠ
Now back to Elrond & Arwen. Once Arwen made her choice she would begin to age. As she bound herself to a NĂșmenĂłrian offspring she would age as they age (three times the life span of regular people). But in the end, her spirit would enjoy the fate of humanity. She was, indeed, severed from her elvish kinâbut was still a cousin as they were all IllĂșvatarâs children.
Orthanic was in ruins in LOTR, and Faramir was unambiguously good and nobleâhis âarrestâ of Frodo was very temporary. Their conversation in Ithilian resulted in Frodoâs release. This is one of the changes I find most objectionable and unnecessary; Faramir was such a pure good guy, reflecting the men of NĂșmenĂłr from the days of Elendil, and Jackson utterly destroyed that.
Galadrielâs gift to Sam was soil from her garden and a Mallorn seed, not salt. It was hope for the possibility of a good outcome.
Thatâs what I remember a few hours after watching. Iâll try to fill you in a bit more about the three ages (Galadriel refers to this in the initial intro of the Fellowshipâworth re-viewing). Question: who do you think is wearing & wielding the three elvish Rings of Power? Frodo saw Galadriel was wearing one of them, so the other two?
Enjoy the ROTK!
Joe Rosenman
2025-07-08 01:11:01 +0000 UTC
Unfortunately cant afford to carry on my sub past the 10th, but hope you enjoy the hell out of Return of the King!! so glad you've experienced/are experiencing this trilogy, i grew up on these films +the star wars films, suffice it to say i always thought i was either a wizard or a jedi đ see you on the youtube â€ïž laters TATERS