LotR2-TTT-Seq05

[JennyHallu]

I didn't get the impression that he was unaware of the damages, but perhaps, and probably intentionally, unaware of the extent and the true danger of Saruman's deception. Or he hadn't been up in that direction in a while, and was reminded and saddened by what had been lost, and it strengthened his anger and resolve.

[Lathriel]

I like Treebeard and I like the way he looks. I don't see anything that is "dumbed down" about him. he might be slow but that is the nature of an ent since their time runs differently from ours, which I think the movie really got across. Especially,since they added that little segment about old entish in the EE.
I don't mind how Merry and Pippin meet Treabeard. Sure, it is different from the books but it works for me.

[Essex]

just a quick point.

I love the way you see the Hope come back into Aragorn's face as he begins to track the hobbits. Starting with his eyes, then his face changes from a grimace to a hopeful stare, then up on his feet stooping quickly up towards Fangorn.

Interspersed with the Action from the hobbits this is a Masterful scene.

I still can't handle the orcs with cockney accents. Just doesn't seem right to me (although did Tolkien have this idea?) - I know the Trolls from the Hobbit were east end characters - you can tell that from their written dialouge. But I don;t pick that up when reading the Orcs' dialogue in LOTR..............

[Eomer of the Rohirrim]

I really liked the sadness of the Hunters. Good acting all round.

Good point, alatar, about how eager Treebeard is to smash the Orcs. Where did that desire go?

I don't particularly like having the Orc in the forest. It leads to those corny lines — 'He's gone', and whatever the Orc said. I'd have preferred it if the Hobbits had met Treebeard while they were at ease. Their pretty-much instant rapport with Treebeard in the book reflected their friendly personas very well.

[Elladan and Elrohir]

I think the Ents are good, but not spectacular. They look great, being something from the book that I always had a hard time picturing, but Treebeard talks a bit too slow for me. I picture him talking only slightly slower than a normal person in the books. And then of course they appear to be a bit dense. The whole Entmoot-and-immediately-following sequences don't make sense to me narrative-wise. Obviously, the storming of Isengard, which we won't get to for a while, is visually stunning. I love it.

[Boromir88]

Eomer, I know what you mean and that was a pretty sturdy orc...I mean to get speared in the back and get up from that in not that bad of a shape is pretty amazing. The Grishnakh chase into the forest was cheesy Hollywood.

I do agree with Essex and that these sequences work for me. I never minded Treebeard until he acted as if he had no clue of what was going on around him. (The burning of his forest comes to mind). But, I like this introductory to Treebeard and don't have a quarrel with it.

Also, Essex, not only Aragorn regaining his hope in the "chase" for the Hobbits, but the despair all three of them come across when they first arrive and think they are dead. A well done scene by everyone.

And a bit on accents, supposedly Jackson tried to get Billy Boyd to change his accent, but all of Billy's lines came out rather bad. Then he found out in The Hobbit the Took's invented golf, and Billy's Scottish accent worked fine.

[doug*platypus]

I thought that Grishnákh was better off left where he was, speared by a Rider of Rohan. I suppose PJ just couldn't resist the temptation of having him squished by Treebeard.

Aragorn's unravelling of the tale of Merry and Pippin was good. At least the audience was left with a sense of ambiguity of the hobbits' fate. The edge of Fangorn looked too dark and too CG for my tastes. Also, it seemed to just halt as a wall, and I always imagined that most forests start off as a few trees scattered here and there and not particularly dense until you really got inside them. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Treebeard looked a lot more, well, tree-ish than I imagined him. But it's a fine line, really, and I'm fairly happy with how the creature shop turned him out. I really wish we could have met him during the day time on his hill/shelf/step. Lórien was made out to be dark and unfriendly, and now so is Treebeard. I also thought his dialogue was a bit too slow. He should have been speaking a little slower than a human, but not so slow that it seems laboured and is tiresome to listen to.

I still can't handle the orcs with cockney accents.

Yeah, I felt the same way about the orc accents. Not quite sure what PJ wanted to achieve, there. Maybe make it into a class war, with the educated bourgeois Frodo, Aragorn, Gandalf and co versus the English working class?? Dumb.