In A Word...Tense!!

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2002)

I must admit I was a bit pretentious and anxious prior to seeing the second installment of Tolkien's epic adventure. So much so that I was shaking severely when the film started. I knew I was in for a treat. I was in it for the high adventure. I really wanted to enjoy this film.
I saw the first installment of Jacksons LOTR TFOTR. Having read C.S. Lewis and John Tolkien's works throughout my life I have come to the realization of just how ballsy these authors portray real life. Yet it is done in a mythical Norse-like way. Now don't get me wrong, this is fantasy right? Seeing how our world today mirrors much of these themes, it is almost scary! Can you say "Iraq"?
The beginning...
As it first unfolds, the film depicts a rich sweeping arial view of the Mines of Moria. As the camera pans around the beautiful New Zealand mountain-range the camera fades into a recap of the battle that we all saw in the first movie between the Balrog and Gandalf the Grey. Looking back to that point (about 3/4 of the way in the first film) we are presented with an exact visual of Gandalf's cane being cast brilliantly to the ground. The Balrog has fallen yet the tip of the flame whip is ensnared around the wizards leg. Frodo screams out, but it is too late... Knowing what a good sevant of the gods must do, the wizard makes a split-second and wise decision to fight the evil Balrog in his own game. The Wizard is locked into mortal combat with this child of shadow. Gandalf and the beast fall through a chasm of forevermore depth towards the highest peak of the underworld. The victory is won, but is Gandalf unscathed?
Thoughts...
Ironically, the actors altruistic revelation of internal mythology is carefully interjected throughout the movie by Tolkien and is well translated by Peter Jackson for the big screen. It is a unplayed mindgame of Tolkiens designed to be an Easter-egg of sorts. For a movie, that is hard to do. This blatant outward realism of the books actually being present in a film is extraneous at best. Is this literary style prevalent in the films thusfar? Emphatically yes! It is quite a film. Dogmatically speaking, this film was an awesome visionary adaptation worthy of Tolkien and is well worth a few Oscars without a doubt. Well done Mr. Jackson!
You want the climaz, anticlimax or just plain plot? Go see the movie!! I don't do spoilers out of respect for Peter Jackson and John Tolkien.