February 25, 2003

On Two Towers and Return of the King
Andrew

First of all, alot of people are saying that they think Return of the King is going to have alot of stuff cut out of it, because of the stuff from the end of Two Towers that has to be put in it, but I dont believe so. The only real thing that will be omitted is the Scouring of the Shire. The Return of the King is actually a lot shorter than Two Towers, if you go by how many pages the book actually is. It only looks bigger because of the appendices on the end. So with the SOTS omited, that should leave it to be the most faithful movie in the trilogy.
As for the complaints about Frodo and the Nazgul in Osgiliath, well, try looking at the storyline in Return of the King. Sauron believes the ring is in Minas Tirith. he sends a huge army there to seige it. This storyline with the Nazgul seeing the Ring IS actually in Gondor, and he believes it's on its way to Minas Tirith (which it actually was at that point, but afterwards Faramir decides to let him go). He then goes and tells Sauron, and so then he talks to Pippin via the palantir, and Gandalf brings him to Minas Tirith. This sets it all up! Sauron then attacks Minas Tirith and the Siege of Gondor happens.
As for Faramir. People say that this is a bad change that Peter jackson made. I don't believe this to be true. Afterall, it fits right in with Faramir's personality. Hes the brother of Boromir, a man who tried to take the Ring from Frodo in the first one, and ended up redeeming himself in the end by saving Merry and Pippin. The same thing happens to Faramir. He tries to bring the Ring to Gondor (which is what Boromir wanted) and ends up redeeming himself by letting him go, and "forfeits" his life. This is a wonderful story line that Faramir ends up forfeiting his life to let Frodo go. He realizes the mistake he's made, and also, people say this slows up the Ringbearer, which isn't true. Faramir brings him further south (which is the way Frodo was going anyway) to Osgiliath which is close to the stairs of Cirith Ungol. So in a way, he also helped Frodo a little bit.
And don't forget that he DOES let Frodo go, which is something Boromir wasn't able to do.
So i think you should at the reasons why Peter jackson actually did make the changes, and not just be upset at the change for no real reason. You say that the new Faramir has no heart. Well, I disagree, I think he shows a lot of heart in the end.
So i loved the Two Towers. I think it is just as good as Fellowship of the Ring, and I think Return of the king is going to be the best!