It’s cool to be an elf

It was a cause for jubilation and long queues. The second installment of The Lord of the Rings has finally begun its much-awaited run. For three weeks after The Two Towers had been released in the US and other countries, the Philippines was left behind the bandwagon, so annoying as if we had to hold our breath a little longer due to things beyond our control. Accept the fact that we’re one of the last, if not the last country (among Hollywood’s strongest markets) to have shown The Two Towers; maybe only before Afghanistan?

As the rest of the world raved about it, I had to content myself with watching the movie trailer on the Net. When the run finally started, it was well received — so well that a lot of people had a hard time buying tickets on the first day; it was a riot, as some would say. As I write this piece; a lot of my friends have yet to watch the movie since they had a hard time getting tickets.

In December, there was no hope for us to easily get seats for the premier showings since the tickets were really hard to get, and we had to give way to the "real" Tolkien fanatics. But it was really a good thing that a day before the actual opening of The Two Towers here, the movie houses were already publicizing the late-night premier showings so that newbie fanatics like me who just couldn’t wait another day, headed for the movie houses very late Friday night (it was already packed) and didn’t care if it ended at around 2 a.m. Seeing it on pirated VCDs and DVDs wasn’t enough. Your tube at home can do only so much, nothing beats the simulation of seeing and feeling it in the wide screen of the movie house.

The only word I could use to describe Peter Jackson’s interpretation of The Two Towers is overwhelming. Not what you expect from a relatively new director. The scenes leave your jaw hanging, and the audience is so drawn into the movie — it is an incredible thrill — that they applause after the screening.

I liked the movie very much; I watched it for two consecutive days, it would have been three if my mom didn’t get sleepy on that Sunday night. Even if the total movie mileage for me was six hours, I felt as if I was watching it for the first time.

The three hours didn’t drag at all. Since the movie is that long and each scene is too "precious" to miss, just make a mental note not to drink anything before and during the movie so you don’t have to squeeze in a walk to the restroom.

The fantasy seems so real that you couldn’t even imagine a bunch of camera crew hidden somewhere behind the sets, you’ll just ruin the essence of it all. You’ll know a good movie when you see one if you have been totally absorbed by it, letting you travel to a whole different world. Peter Jackson is a great storyteller. And speaking of storytelling, remember when you were still kids, if there’s a show you like so much, you pretend you’re playing your favorite character. This one just revived the little boy in me, let’s just say, "It’s cool to be an elf."

I must admit that I’m not a fanatic Tolkien fan, I haven’t read his books, but it seems he has created a lot of followers overnight. It’s only now that I am beginning to get addicted to his works, and I don’t have to read the books to understand why a lot of people are such devoted followers of Tolkien. His genius has come up with a whole different world that’s so complex, it even has a different language.

I find The Two Towers definitely better than the first. This time there is more comic relief, good storytelling, more action, more graphics (actually more of everything) and there is the very important wow factor; having one of the most impressive battle sequences and the ending for The Two Towers doesn’t leave you hanging compared to the Fellowship. But we have to accept the fact that the three installments are just one whole movie needed to be cut into three parts since it’s very long. And unlike the Fellowship where I got bored already the second time I watched the movie, with The Two Towers, the second time left me wanting for more. The Two Towers takes up where the Fellowship left off, so I guess if you watch the three movies back-to-back, it would look like one masterpiece. The actors have grown nicely into their roles, even if I noticed some of them gained weight (Liv Tyler and the actor who plays Sam). But for some Tolkien purists — the type who even mastered the Elvish language (I’m already finding it hard to learn German, what more Elvish?) — it was kinda disappointing that many scenes from the book have been deleted, and some alterations were made. But it’s already a no brainer to know that cinema has its own demands. You can’t really put all that’s in the book on the screen, and considering the tight budget. Peter Jackson’s interpretation and adaptation of the film made it engrossing for us common folk to connect to and to reach the divine which is Tolkien.

Two thousand two was the year Hollywood produced a lot of sequels or prequels, you name it. But it’s only The Two Towers that has been very highly anticipated... The Chamber of Secrets was highly satisfactory as well, but it’s not on par — too comic-bookish. And don’t let me start on Star Wars: Episode 2 which was just pure boredom (I fell asleep during the movie), not to mention a waste of your time and money (sorry to the Star Wars fanatics out there, even before Star Wars, Tolkien was already Tolkien).

For the computer junkies, a lot of games were recently inspired by Tolkien, such as Warcraft 3. For those who have the game, you notice that it’s like you’re playing the movie.

This movie is really worth celebrating; you have to hand it to them since Tolkien’s works are a challenging complexity to adapt to film and in Peter Jackson’s case, it’s pure talent winning over seniority in Hollywood, to be able to make Tolkien’s masterpiece into something like what he wanted it to be, since a lot of movies nowadays have sacrificed good storytelling for profit.

Now we’re looking forward to the third and last movie. They’ll definitely gonna make it worth remembering, and I know it’s going to be quite a challenge. As Gandalf said, "The battle for Helms Deep is over, now the battle for Middle Earth has begun." This is just a foretaste of what’s to come. I don’t want to wait. I’ll definitely try to get some premiere tickets, by hook or by crook.

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E-mail the author at: ketsupluis@hotmail.com.