Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers

[Singed Tentacle]

Upon reading the second installment in the LOTR trilogy, "The Two Towers," I am amazed at the differences in the movie and the book. Of course, movies are always off in some way from their written counterparts, but I wasn't aware Peter Jackson had changed the stories as much as he had.

I had thought that the extended versions would be close to the books, just because they had way more time to include what would have been left out in the normal versions. I had read the LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring before the movies, but it had been about 10 years prior, so I wasn't aware of all the differences. I have read "The Hobbit," so it'll be interesting to see what the do to the two-parter that's in the works.

Spoiler text ahead. Select to view >I'm well into the book now, and I have noticed a myriad of things already. The first thing that I noticed is that Tolkien really followed the trials of Merry and Pippen a lot more while they were in captivity by the orcs (like, 50+ pages!) and their escape. There was no, "oh, head for that forest over there! What do you know, this is an odd tree, oh, it's Treebeard!" There is a long explanation about the Ents' names, and their meeting place is more important, and Merry and Pippin are left in the care of another Ent throughout the meeting. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli's journey is a lot different. They have to go into full investigation to find the hobbits, and where I am at now, someone stole their horses, and it appears to be an old man. They meet again in the forest, and I'm sure you can guess who THAT turns out to be...< Spoiler text

It's really a lot more involved, and I'm having a blast reading it, especially after seeing all of the normal versions and extended versions of the movies. They are great in their own right, but it seems like Tolkien added a lot more depth to his writing. For those who have not read the novels and you are a fan of the movies, you are missing a whole world of things that are not even mentioned in the movies. Not just characters and creatures, but explanation, different situations, almost like a whole different take on the story. (Obviously, the most true to the story, since it's the original ). But, it is worth reading, and I plan to keep reading. It has turned out to be a very rewarding experience so far.

[VonGhoul]

Only nerds read books that don't have illustrations to explain what's happening.... :: runs away crying because can't read ::

[VonGhoul]

actually I didnt mean to end that comment so soon

Believe it or not I've never read any Tolkien novel or series. I think it has more to do with the fact I was pressured to do so by so many people I rebelled. So instead I retreated into the world of Dragonlance, which is awesome in its own right.

Recently, though, I've been contemplating reading LOTR since, like you said, movies have a way of leaving ALOT out. Not their fault really and I'm fine with abridged versions of books as long as they don't lose the soul of the book. But if you are a reader, nothing ever comes close to the novelization, especially if the story started out that way.

Speaking of Dragonlance, which I did in the first paragraph, they are now in the animating process of the first "Chronicles" animated movie! Well last time I checked they were. Probably need to check again cuz they could be done or cancelled by now. But the fact that Chronicles has a current comic book version being released is a good sign it's still on. Wish a live action with Jackson was on the board but I'll take what I can get.

[bwayne]

Tolkien is epic when it comes to novels or series. I am sick of all the new attempts to recreate his magic. When is the next Lord of the Rings coming out? This would be a great use of 3d.

MY PRECIOUS!!