cinematic jewels

Rating: 9/10 (22 December 2002)

My view that the films are aimed at the 'Tolkien Sensibility', to the spirit rather than the letter of the books if you like, is becoming settled. I still shall not fully judge the work until I have seen the final third. Much of this film was making even me (in my long-sundered relationship to the storyline) somewhat uneasy. I could not recall what actually happens in the book in the places where there were changes, but I still /felt/ those changes. The music this time was /far/ too intrusive. There were also somewhat more touches of cheesy cliché than in the first film - one of the distinctive features of Jackson's directing style seems to be an ability to use Hollywood tricks without letting the films become Hollywood films. It stands on a knife-edge though ;)
Anyway. Uneasy as I was, there were cinematic jewels in this and I shall list those I particularly recall (comments about plot and character changes I will leave to other threads):

The moment during the fall with the Balrog where the camera draws back into vast distance and we see the battle in the flames falling into the waters.

Arwen at the tomb of Aragorn. A simply ravishing scene - utterly beautiful and haunting. It was the first thing in the film that overpowered my conscious thinking and dragged me away from watching it 'critically'.

Edoras. This worked in spades. Those of you lazy reviewers going on about "vikings" should note that everything about the Rohirrim is anglo-saxon, not norse - and they live hundreds of miles from any sea. The vast views from the portico of Meduseld were sublime.

The rise of the winged wraith above the parapet of the tower in front of Frodo (someone last night pointed out that this is almost an hommage to a similar scene involving a helicopter in Apocalypse Now).

All these pale into near-insignificance however beside the section
comprised of the ride of the White Rider and friends down that slope into the batle at Helms Deep and the Storming of Isengard by the ents.

I did not think I would ever see such things.
I still cannot /quite/ believe that I did.