(I think there's spoilers in here, haven't figured out what i'm going to write yet...if you don't want to read any spoilers...wait, you were already warned at the folder entry...bah, read at your own, already pre-warned risk!)

...well, either that or the movie reel broke and they patched what they could back together <shake fist> I think the love scene with Aragorn and Arwen got nixed...was there instances of nudity? A little too much passion? <scratch head> ...or it could have been my imagination and that the scene just after they kissed was ended too abruptly and the music randomly cut off at the wrong point. ....My friend, Marcel, thinks they might have cut off battle scenes too... gonna watch it again later and look out for it.

At the time I was just caught up in the magic. :) *filled with WAFFy-ness*

Took me a day to recover though... (see pre-movie ramble for reason why)

I hope when the movie is sold, they won't censor it...maybe I'll have to ask someone to send me the US version <flail>

<ramble about pre-movie experience>

So The Two Towers finally arrived!! YAY! My best friend's brother went to see the premiere on Wednesday night (that's US Wednesday noon)...gloated about it when he bought the tickets earlier... repressed urge to kill him :)

After failing to get advanced bookings, I woke up at 7:30 a.m. Thursday morning, picked up my best friend, Val (who was hideously sick), and went off to go camp out outside the ticket counter at one of the major cineplexes in malaysia! Luckily I got in one of the front parts. :) We weren't alone... LOADS of people were there..mostly men. Though I did see a sedate middle-aged woman there.

Gold Class seat tickets (at 2.5 times more than the regular ticket price) was completely sold out till Saturday.) Alas, the regular night showings were sold out too. Couldn't go afternoon cos we had promised to watch it with val's boyfriend and my other best friend after they got off work.

finally: Midnight showing, 3rd row... (turnd out to be okay..wasn't like when i saw minority report when all I could seem to see were huge noses and moving lips)

Alas...my other best friend refused to go see 3rd row so we only got tickets for 3....then...Val's mom blew up and forbade her to go out so late cos she was sick. <flap> Yes, we asian girls are protected and sheltered till we're married and outta the house... :) Well, me and Val are at any case.

So..in the end it was just me and Val's boyfriend. <flap> after all that trouble we went to.... I shoulda just gone for the afternoon show....rather than driving home after the movie, half-comatose at 3:30 a.m.

<the movie ramble>

I....loved it! Everything....well except for icky sweetie love scenes. <wrinkles nose> but oddly, it wasn't as bad as the first movie. Maybe because this time I had braced myself for it.

Combat... drool fast paced...and wonderfully graphic. If at times a little confusing...but that's a good thing. Funny too, to see some instances of extreme heroism... Aragorn and Gimli holding off the legion, for example...hehe... Legolas and his glorious moves will strike a chord in many women's fancy I'm sure. :P I still stay true to Aragorn, even if he's stuck in more icky romancey scenes, bleh.

Did anyone find that scene with Legolas leaping on to the horse way too unrealistic?

I liked that there were more amusing/comic relief parts. I was told that this movie was slower paced than the first one, but I felt it was faster personally. Perhaps because it starts off right in the middle of the action...instead of a slowly developing introduction that leads into the exciting bits. :)

I had some questions that I still haven't found the answer to, because I only read book one (ages and ages ago) and have a less than stellar memory recall... like...um...why are the creatures coming out like in a birthing sac from some gravey-place? I assume they're uruk-hai... <scratch head> So there are some parts of the movie where I go..huh?

<post movie>

As i mentioned, I only completed book one. Have a little trouble with Tolkien's writing style :) That, and after watching Harry Potter & The Chamber of Secrets, I absolutely refused to read LOTR further until after the movie so that I can at least maintain that sense of wonder, instead of spending every minute critiquing every scene of the movie by comparing it to the book.

I think I made the right choice in abstaining, cos I feel as a non-Tolkien fan, I can watch the movie on its own merits... by far it's one of the best adaptations, especially of the fantasy genre which I've yet to see an equal, in my opinion.

It's not easy to bring an already famous book to the screen... Impossible to retain every single aspect that made the book famous. I think Peter Jackson did an admirable job, and you could sense that this director was a fan. The love for the fellowship permeates the movies shown thus far.

Yes, there were changes, some I think shouldn't have been done, but I don't think anyone could have done a better job. Do you?

If he had been almost faithful to the book's progress and development, I think it would have made for a very dull movie, because things that work best in a book...don't always work best in a movie.

Am now half-way through The Two Towers book. Only fell asleep twice.... <grin> No, it wasn't cos I found it boring. I tend to read before bedtime and I read till I nod off. I think I enjoy the book more cos I've seen the movie. :)

I note the differences, and for the most part, I think it's a good call.

I note some attraction between Eowyn and Aragorn in the book :) So I was like, ah, so it was actually written in the book. I don't think they were "messing with her place as Strider's love" as Sulrin mentioned. I feel there was some attraction on Aragorn's part, definitely on Eowyn's part...if downplayed by Tolkien who doesn't do lovey dovey writing.

And even in the movie, it seemed the same to me, just more highlighted...rather than taking up a few lines in book 2. Eowyn having a huge thing for Aragorn, while he was somewhat attracted to her but still with a huge thing for Arwen. She still held the first place in his heart :)

Though moving her and other people to that place was odd (or does that happen later in the book?). I guess they wanted to give it more weight...the need to protect the place... oh and give her a more noticeable presence. Women-folk presence are seriously lacking in tolkien's books, and I think the movie is all the better for making them more noticeable. :P

Meanwhile, I want Santa to put worser things than coal in the stockings of the jerks who REPEATEDLY used noisy handphones...especially that stupid guy a couple of rows in front of me who kept his cell on NON-silence mode to text msg his friends. Grrr.

Pam

Fave parts of the movie
- the whole part when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli were chasing after the orcs who captured Merry and Pippin. Dunno why...just loved it.
- everything with the Ents in it. :)

>>Fave parts of the movie - the whole part when Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli were chasing after the orcs who captured Merry and Pippin. Dunno why...just loved it.

Was it just me, or did that bit have orcs moving about in the sunlight. Isn't that a no-no in Middle Earth?

Seldaren

> Well,the last fight in the first movie was them fighting in the afternoon...

Yeah, but that scene didn't have orcs, I don't think. Just Saruman's clearyourthroats.


Seldaren

> The uruk-hai can walk about during the day.

Yeah, I remember that, but wasn't that pasty wrinkled thing that wanted to eat the hobbits a pure orc?


Seldaren

<grins at Pathyn>

Yeah, when I saw Strider's head on/ear to the ground, my first thought was...oh lookie, he's tracking! oops..scouting..

As for the Uruk-hai..yeah, i saw that...but what I wanted to know was how and why? How were uruk-hai created and why put them in the gravey-thing? basically, I was curious about the nitty-gritty technical aspects from the creation to the birth. Does tolkien ever explain why they're in the gravey-thing in the book?

Pam, still halfway through the book... noooo! more singing without rhymes!

>orcs moving about in the sunlight

You can, technically have orcs in sunlight. They just prefer darkness. shrugs If they are in sunlight, they're partially blind, though. Heh.

>>Gandalf (sic) and his ring. One of the Dwarven rings actually.<<

Gandalf wears the third Elvish ring. Galadriel has one, Elrond a second. Gndalf was given the third elf ring, to keep it in Middle Earth so it would not pass into the West.

>>>And too whoever said the Balron are Marair they aren't. Sauron is a Mairar, Morgath was a Valar. The Balrogs were created by Morgoth to protect himself in the First Age. <<<

I don't think you understood what I was saying.

Balrogs were a sort of 'offspring' of Morgoth, who is a Valar (albeit the evil one.) This is EQUIVALENT to the Maiar, who are basically 'offspring' of Valar, which includes folks like Gandalf.

Balrogs and Istari are similar beings in terms of the celestial hierarchy, they are just around for different purposes and come from different Valar.

---Brett

>>Was it just me, or did that bit have orcs moving about in the sunlight. Isn't that a no-no in Middle Earth?

**********
The uruk-hai are especially bred to be able to fight in the daylight. I believe they are a cross of orcs and some form of man.(that's what all those birthing sacs are about)

Allarsk