LOTR: The Two Towers
Just a quick note, since I still haven´t got much time on my hands and I´m probably typing this only to say "Me, first!" anyway: If you liked
The Fellowship of the Ring, you´re probably gonna love
The Two Towers. It´s even got pacing (changing between parties, Jackson manages an editing rhythm that made me think I´d truly enjoy this one for an hour or so; no small feet since I felt I´d been whacked over the head with a few hundred hobbits too many after the first), well-choreographed, emphatically HUGE battle scenes, it´s even more front-on about its digital leadership (those ingratiating zooms in le grande landscape have been replaced by some pretty crany movements; Gollum is the most advanced CGI creature ever, though he looks like the degenerate offspring of a spider and the pathetic baby from
Alien: Resurrection) and still not a tracy of irony (be prepared for some pretty childish dwarf humour instead). Obviously, Jackson´s craftsmanship is all in place, why don´t I care one iota for the stuff? At first I thought I´d just outgrown that particular fantasyworld or been driven batty by the constant numbing of quasi-religious blockbuster myths (the only alternative to the Bruckheimer explosionism it seems) à la
Star Wars or
Harry Potter which I have to review all the time, or it´s simply the disappointment that Lee and Dourif are so underused (the other good acting, by MacKellan is quickly undercut: he walks on, does his English stage pro tricks and what´s the reward for his charismatic entrance? Kitsch music and a white horse in slo-mo.). But no, it´s quite simple: it´s the fact that while Jackson achieves an impressive illustration of Tolkien´s novel, it´s never more than that. If that´s enough for you, fine (there´s enough to marvel at, some easy ridicule points notwithstanding), but I never have the feeling that I´m watching something cinematic, something conceived as a movie (bits´n´pieces of Jackson´s ole anarchic spirit notwithstanding), only the most opulent Viewer´s Digest there ever was; it certainly looks better, but ultimately it doesn´t do any more for me, than, say, some recent TV version of
Huck Finn; I don´t understand why it´s necessary, even less, why it´s necessary for me to watch it. That said, I sat through two more hours, mildly distracted (did they have to do that elf aberration stuff again, though?), otherwise pondering two interesting theses not really inherent to the movie: a) Could it be that Jackson identifies with the prominent Gollum, having given years of his life to the power of the ring? b) Why does the constant call for mobilisation against an evil empire whose particulars remain as vague as its unquestionable badness is a given, keep reminding me of US foreign policy?
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