January 18, 2003

Questions About TTT
Kailam

Okay, I swore I would just leave it alone and not bring any of this up, but I have some small problems/questions with the movie that I just need to vent/ask about. I fully admit that for the most part (except for the first one) these are nit-picks, and not to be taken too seriuosly. I just enjoy nit-picking, so leave me alone and let me nit-pick.

Also, let me say that I have no problem with Peter Jackson altering the scenes/characters of the book to fit the movie. I think that for the most part he's done an excellent job with his adaptation. My problems are just basic movie-type problems that appear in a lot of films.

1.) The big one for me is, what is up with Elrond's "sobering" speech to Arwen? I must be seriously missing something here. In "Fellowship", it is made clear that by giving herself to Aragorn Arwen has chosen mortality. Yet in TTT, Elrond tries to talk Arwen out of marrying Aragorn by describing how lonely she will be once Aragorn dies and she goes on to live forever in middle-earth. Hello?? So, now she can marry him but is still immortal? Maybe in the first move she didn't ACTUALLY say "I choose to be a mortal", but she did say "I choose a mortal life", so what gives? Tell me I'm stupid and missed something. Please!

2.) The rest are pretty nit-picky, and they mostly involve treebeard. For one, weren't Merry and Pippin riding on treebeard's shoulders when they see Saruman's army marching from Isengard? Maybe I'm wrong about that too, but if not, then there Treebeard is, right in plain sight of Isengard. Yet later on, Treebeard comes BACK to Isengard, and is suddenly horribly offended by the fact that all the trees are gone. Did he just NOT NOTICE before when he was walking right past the place? Again, maybe I'm remembering the scene incorrectly. Please tell me if so.

3.) Finally, I was a little perturbed (as I always am when directors do this type of thing) by the Ent army's impromptu appearance for the march on Isengard. It took Treebeard several days to walk to the site of the Entmoot, and presumably it took the other ents just as long to get there. Presumably these Ents are scattered around the forests of Middle-Earth seldom interacting (Treebeard says it has been ages since the last Entmoot). Then, after the Entmoot, Treebeard spends a long-assed time carrying Merry and Pippin this way and that. The other Ents presumably at this point have gone about their business and returned to their hoems. Yet, after all this, when Treebeard stands in Isengard, gets pissed, and belts out his call to arms, *POOF* there's a hundred Ents standing right there in the forest ready to march. Maybe they use teleporters, or maybe Treebeard has a host of stalkers who follow him wherever he goes, but I just thought that was kind of stupid to have all those Ents just right there ready to go. But hey, that's just me!

Anyway, there's my 2 cents. Rest assured that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but these plot holes bothered me so I thought I'd present them. Please don't yell at me. Thanks!!