Towers vs Clones

Rating: Null/10 (19 December 2002)

It's inevitable that this trilogy will be compared to the Star Wars movies, particularly Ep 2, for both the grand scale of the movies, and that both directors are overweight guys with beards who like flannel. First off, the visuals in Towers were absolutely incredible, much more believable than Clones. Peter Jackson was much more willing to use the real world as a back drop, instead of doing every little detail digitally, the results of which are celluloid proof that the real world is still much better looking on screen than a completely digital world. The Helms Deep battle is one of the greatest battle scenes ever to be put on screen, the scale of which can only be appreciated by watching the film, and is also miles ahead of the battle at the end of Clones (which, while very good, was the highpoint of an otherwise mediocre movie). The final 45 min to an hour of Towers are just astonishing. Gollum is the most realistic CG figure I've ever seen, far better looking than his twin brothers Dobby and Yoda. I'm guessing the fact that the colors are drained from most of the scenes he's in makes the CGI blend better with the real world actors and scene. The problem I found in Clones was that some of the scenes that were too bright, and saturated with color which made Yoda look fake. The Gollum character is also much more fascinating and deeper than the midget Jedi. The storyline, while not as clear as the first installment, was terrific. Some of the details get lost on someone who's not familiar with the source material, whether it's true to it or not, and will require additional viewings to completely understand. I didn't particularly care for the Merry/Pippen story until the end, but I understand its importance. The side love story between Aragorn and Arwen is much more moving than that load of garbage in Clones. The acting in Towers is also far superior, (With all due respect to Natalie Portman, I cringe during points of her performance) which is the result of superior casting and a better script and storyline. So far this trilogy has captured the magic of the original Star Wars films, and should be a reminder to everyone at Lucasfilm how movies of this magnitude should be made, and that attention to the detail of the visuals should never come at the expense of neglecting the storyline.