1)No prologue: Apparently PJ won that fight with New Line. . PJ’s attitude strikes me as a tad cavalier. There will be a quite a few people who did see the first film but only once and don’t remember too much. A few minutes of prologue won’t kill the rest of the film. Besides that it just sets up the story nicely and creates the right atmosphere. I thought the prologue in the first one was excellent and really set up the film.
2)More action-packed:
Not that I mind action sequences but I thought the theatrical release of FOTR had more than enough of them particularly in the second half (I preferred the EE which slowed down the pace) . I don’t think making TTT even more action-packed ,at the expense of character development, makes it better. In FOTR I really liked the contrast set up in the begining between the slow-moving ,idyllic Shire sequence and the chase by the Ring-wraiths. If it’s all action it’s much harder to develop that kind of contrast.
I am sure I will like the film but maybe less than I had hoped for.
TTT has more action, so it seems natrual that the movie would reflect that. On the prologue, what do you say? You can’t recap the three hour first movie in 5 minutes, so it wouldn’t do any good, and it is just taking time away from the story that you are going to tell.
Well the first prologue didn’t recap all of the previous story but IMO it did a great job of setting up the film and showing what was at stake. I another prologue could have done the same here.
As for TTT having more action, maybe but they do say that they did change the film quite a bit from the book so I think they did have a fair amount of leeway in how to mix action and character development. I guess we will have to wait for the film to see what they have done.
I’m just as glad there’s no prologue. How could you put it all, especially character deaths and separations, in a prologue without making it sould flippant and soap-opera-like?
TTT does have a lot of action in the books. I simply hope we do the the character development - the Legolas/Gimli, Frodo/Sam, Merry/Pippin relationships (to name just a few) really take hold in the second book. Hopefully the second movie will bring out the character and strength of the hobbits just the way the book did.
TTT is my favorite book of the three, so let’s say I’m looking forward to it!
The Two Towers is relatively shorter a book so there is more room for battles and such – I don’t think the character development will fall short shrift. I’m most interested in seeing how they handle Eowyn.
The articles I saw today (one was the Time article) also mentioned more development of the love story between Aragorn and Arwen (so I supposed there is some character development for you), which in the books was really part of one of the Appendices.
Honestly, The Two Towers is the least plot-heavy of the trilogy. As such, there is room for an extended Helms Deep battle sequence. I will probably be annoyed by the extended scenes of the Silly Elf Bint, but tis understandable why Jackson wants them in there. There is really only one thing I must have in TTT:
The orc-killing contest between Legolas and Gimli
If that is in the movie, I will be a happy girl. If it isn’t- well, I’ll rip out Peter Jackson’s still-beating heart and/or throttle him with reels of his own film.
But dang! That article spoiled a ton! The Ents destroying Isengard!
Losing the last two chapters of TTT?! Ooooh, that sounds like a bad choice to my highly-opinionated fan-self. When I read the books first, I was thirteen, and I finished TTT at a little after midnight on a school night.
I saw the sun rise the next morning, as I feverishly read through ROTK, hoping against hope that everything would turn out all right :).
The end of TTT book is probably the best cliffhanger I’ve ever encountered.
Daniel, I think that’s the point. If you leave the movie where the book left off, you’ve got about a four hour movie (no complaints here!), and about a 2 hour ROTK. Plus, non-fans were pretty peeved at the cliffhangerish ending of FOTR, can you imagine the rioting that would take place after TTT?
The Time article is a cliffhanger itself (and is the online version different at all from the print version?). The Viggo Mortensen quote does have me a little worried. Guess there’s not much to do but wait and see.
Spoiler - TTT and ROTK material here - you’re warned.
The promotion of Helm’s Deep to an armageddon-type battle could be either a good choice or a bad choice. But the risk - and we won’t know for another year - is that Helm’s Deep and Pellenor Fields might be playing the same role.
And then there’s a poster with Aragorn standing in front of Eowyn and Arwen. Suggesting a luv triangle, which would bother me. Spoilers are welcome on this point, if ya got em… forewarned is forarmed.
I don’t think that an escalation of Helm’s Deep would exclude the battle of Pellenor Fields. In fact, I have heard confirmation of flying Nazgul in ROTK, and the unveiling of the Witch King, so I would suppose they’ll have both.
Regarding the love triangle, there was one in the book, if you consider only Eowyn’s perspective. Also, there’s a triangle for Arwen between a mortal and immortal life. Aragorn makes out like a king in this scenario!
If nothing else, in the book, Aragorn was very troubled when he (rather quickly) realized what Eowyn thought of him. One gets the impression that he was rather tempted, even though he knew he couldn’t have her. And let’s face it: For all of his great points, Tolkien was lousy at writing romance. I imagine that, had he the skill, he would have played up the love triangle more himself.
Eowyn vs. Arwen? No contest. My jaw dropped the first time I saw the trailer with Miranda Otto as Eowyn, and I haven’t quite managed to get it back in place yet.
It was armageddon. If Rohan had fallen, Gondor would have fallen. If that had happened, There would have been no Aragorn and company to march on Mordor and distract Sauron from Frodo and Sam. The ring would have been recovered by Sauron. And even if Frodo had succeeded, The men of the west would have fallen, and the Dunlendings and half-orcs would have run roughshod over survivors.
I was sucked in and engrossed by the Prologue of FOTR myself, but I’m still glad that there won’t be one for TTT. It isn’t needed. If someone can’t take the time to at least go rent the first movie, then if they’re confused it’s their own problem. I like that we’ll be thrown headfirst into the action regarding
Gandalf and the Balrog.
In a 3 hour movie, there’s going to be PLENTY of character moments, especially regarding Frodo, Sam and Gollum, and Merry and Pippen.
Oh, you’re probably right. The public would riot, throw shoes at the screens, not buy three versions of the DVD, etc. Jackson almost certainly knows better than me in this case.
But dammit, the brutal cliffhanger-ending was the strongest emotional punch I got through reading the trilogy, and it pains me that Jackson isn’t going to inflict the same pain on the general public.
When you’re reading the books, all you have to do is put TTT down and pick up ROTK, and within minutes you’re reading about what happens next. Making people wait a whole year for the answer would be insane and very cruel. It’s going to set up a helluvan opening for the 3rd movie as it is. I’m glad it was moved.
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