Review of extended scenes in Two Towers (spoilers)

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Have you guys found the Easter Egg? On the first disk, go to the Chapter Menu. Pick the last two scenes, then cursor past both of them. You'll see a gold ring light up on the bottom of the screen. Hit enter.

It's SO worth it!

Yeah! That was great. Have you found any others? I know Fellowship has two Easter Eggs...but I've only found that one on Two Towers.

Oh, and I have to say...out of all the extended scenes, the Boromir/Faramir/Denethor stuff in Osgiliath is the BEST. Anyone else notice Minas Tirith in the background shots? I don't remember that in the theatrical version...

 

[Chauzu]

Anyone else notice Minas Tirith in the background shots? I don't remember that in the theatrical version...

Yes, so did I. Then I did the commentary, and PJ said they took it out of the theatrical release because people got confused, thinking Minas Tirith was Heml's Deep.

 

[TiQuinn]

Just watched the extended edition this weekend, and it was just awesome!

I loved the additions to Faramir's character. The background with him, Boromir, and Denethor at Osgiliath were fantastic, and I wish they had included them in the original version. I told so much more, and gave me a reason to like Faramir, and understand his conflict. I agree now that having Faramir just blow off the ring would cut the throat of the movie. Why would a ring so powerful that it can tempt Gandalf and Galadriel suddenly be unable to tempt an honorable man like Faramir? Great additions!

I also liked the extended scenes with Aragorn and Eowyn. Not only did it give a lot more background on Aragorn, but it also expanded Eowyn's role to the point that her sudden crush on Aragorn doesn't seem such a contrivance anymore. Good work!

I didn't think the Isengard dam scene was bad at all. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but the scene looked great to me.

A couple of nits to pick and this just pertains to the movie in general (either version):

Legolas leaping on the horse...good. Noticeable CGI, but you have to look for it. And it was cool. Legolas surfing down the stairs with heroic music rising in the background....bad. So bad. Probably seemed a good idea at the time.

Too many speeches. Too much "We need to do this because it affects all of us!" The slow build to the battle at Helm's Deep, complete with slow motion shots of kids getting ready for war.

"Ride out and meet them."

"Frodo wouldn't have gotten far if it weren't for Sam."

"Because there's still some good in this world!" (Sad little Gollum looks down).

Ick. Ack. Yuck. I think Jackson was going for too many forced "moments" in The Two Towers, to the point that it weighed on the movie.

And if Pippin hadn't figure out by now why fighting Sauron was necessary....I mean, c'mon. Silly, silly, silly and all so Merry could have a dramatic moment. Blech.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Too many speeches. Too much "We need to do this because it affects all of us!" The slow build to the battle at Helm's Deep, complete with slow motion shots of kids getting ready for war.

PJ would probably like this comment. He was very much trying for the Zulu effect, where the movie is as much about the build up to the battle as the battle itself.

I do think the additional scenes help, and after watching some of the otehr commentary I understand why they made some of the changes they did -- particularly the Faramir personality bit (though I still think they could have achieved their intent through a couple of clever flashbacks, rather than dragging Frodo to Osgiliath, but whatever).

The one that still irks me is the Aragorn disappearance scene. Their explanation: "well, we considered cutting it, but if we did, then the whole warg scene would have been pointless" -- I thought the warg scene, as cool as it was, was a bit too gratuitous anyway and didn't belong. Ah, well. I do like the EE better overall.

I'm interested to find out what the RotK changes will be, knowing that they've cut the Saruman death scene and a bunch (not sure how much) of the Housess of Healing material.

 

[kengar]

Just watched the extended edition this weekend, and it was just awesome!

I loved the additions to Faramir's character. The background with him, Boromir, and Denethor at Osgiliath were fantastic, and I wish they had included them in the original version. I told so much more, and gave me a reason to like Faramir, and understand his conflict. I agree now that having Faramir just blow off the ring would cut the throat of the movie. Why would a ring so powerful that it can tempt Gandalf and Galadriel suddenly be unable to tempt an honorable man like Faramir? Great additions!

I also liked the extended scenes with Aragorn and Eowyn. Not only did it give a lot more background on Aragorn, but it also expanded Eowyn's role to the point that her sudden crush on Aragorn doesn't seem such a contrivance anymore. Good work!

I didn't think the Isengard dam scene was bad at all. Maybe I'm not looking hard enough, but the scene looked great to me.

A couple of nits to pick and this just pertains to the movie in general (either version):

Legolas leaping on the horse...good. Noticeable CGI, but you have to look for it. And it was cool. Legolas surfing down the stairs with heroic music rising in the background....bad. So bad. Probably seemed a good idea at the time.

Too many speeches. Too much "We need to do this because it affects all of us!" The slow build to the battle at Helm's Deep, complete with slow motion shots of kids getting ready for war.

"Ride out and meet them."

"Frodo wouldn't have gotten far if it weren't for Sam."

"Because there's still some good in this world!" (Sad little Gollum looks down).

Ick. Ack. Yuck. I think Jackson was going for too many forced "moments" in The Two Towers, to the point that it weighed on the movie.

And if Pippin hadn't figure out by now why fighting Sauron was necessary....I mean, c'mon. Silly, silly, silly and all so Merry could have a dramatic moment. Blech.

I watched it this weekend as well and agree with most of your comments.

Absolutely loved how the Faramir/Boromir/Denethor scene helped justify Faramir's character more.

The Legolas-horse jump. In the appendices, they talk about how they'd worked on an actual move for Orlando to try. Come time to shoot the scene, he had a cracked rib from a fall and couldn't do it, so they went CGI. The WORST special effect in the movie -either version- IMO. Think about this while watching it: Legolas is standing on the horse's right, facing the animal. He grabs the harnass with his right hand and swings IN FRONT OF THE GALLOPING HORSE onto its back from the OPPOSITE side. This means elf-boy has got to wrench himself around FROM A DEAD STANDSTILL to the far side of the horse; basically using just his wrist. He would have bounced against the right flank of the horse like a saddlebag. It would have looked more realistic and less obviously CGI to simply have him mount from the side he was already on.

I didn't find the "talky bits" bad. A lot of it was needed to cover exposition in the book that isn't in the dialog. The speech Sam says at Osgiliath is adapted from scenes in the books and Frodo's acknowledgement of Sam's role in the quest seemed fitting given the level to which Frodo comes to depend upon Sam before the end.

FWIW, Pippin's character is a bit ignorant of the larger issues, but he did come across as somewhat naive.

 

[TiQuinn]

I didn't find the "talky bits" bad. A lot of it was needed to cover exposition in the book that isn't in the dialog. The speech Sam says at Osgiliath is adapted from scenes in the books and Frodo's acknowledgement of Sam's role in the quest seemed fitting given the level to which Frodo comes to depend upon Sam before the end.

Well, hopefully now that it's out of the way and done with, they won't have to talk too much about "why we fight" in Return of the King. And it will soon be pretty evident to everyone who doesn't know what's going to happen in RotK how important Sam was. I just wish there was a little bit more "show, not tell" on that score in The Two Towers.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Well the movie went from a "Well I guess it's better than most of the other trash coming out of Hollywood..." to a pretty good movie with the additional scenes. Faramir still doesn't have the character he has in the book, but I suppose the additional scenes help, and after watching the appendix I understand why they changed him. Thank the lord that the initial idea of having Arwyn at Helm's Deep was shot down. I would have walked out of the theater if that had happened. I still don't like the elves at Helm's Deep though, and why would Elrond have something to do with elves from Galadriel's realm going there? Those weren't elves from Rivendell.

So far I rate the films on a *-***** scale like so.

FoTR - ****1/2
FoTR:EE - *****

TT - **1/2
TT:EE - ****

I hope I get over the chopping up of the Return of the King. I get the feeling that it's not going to be very close to the book at all. I'm considering waiting for the EE before even watching it.

 

[Wormwood]

The Treebeard scenes were easily my favorite additions. Wonderful stuff.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I loved the additions, they really take the movies to the next level.

 

[The Serge]

It's not mentioned in the movies, but Boromir was also having dreams of Isildur's Bane. I *Think* that was one of the reasons for going to Imladris.

Actually, it is mentioned in the movie. In the Extended Edition of Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir mentions Isildur's Bane upon seeing the Ring on the pedestal and recounts his dream as he almost hypnotically walks toward it. Before he can take it, Gandalf jumps up and speaks the Chant of the Ring in Black Speech. One of the best scenes in the whole extended edition of FotR.