I finally saw Two Towers last weekend, and one question has been really bothering me since then: Why was there no rioting? Why didn't a torch-and-pitchfork-carrying mob descend on the studio, and wreak havoc?
As near as I can tell, the people in charge of the move sat around one day, and one said, "So are we going to mostly stick to the story, like we did for the first movie, thus ensuring that we'll have a good movie?" To which, someone responded, "Heck no! That's been done, so we can't just do it again! What a stupid idea!" The first guy slapped his forehead and said, "You're right; silly me! Lets give the story to amateurs and have them rewrite it to be nothing like the original story instead." Everyone agreed that that would be best, and so they did.
So then the script-writers got together and brainstormed, and came up with all of the following ideas:
- "First, instead of just editing for time, let's also modify basically every event in the book just for kicks. Then, people who have read the books won't know what's going on, and it will be new for everyone!"
- "Lets make all of the characters one-dimensional. Gimli? Why have waste him as a character when he can just be the butt of midget jokes? Eowyn? A strong shield-maiden of Rohan? But she's much more effective doing nothing but wandering around and staring longingly at Aragorn! Faramir? Honorable and courageous? Only the heroes should have virtues, so lets make him a total schmuck instead. Oh, and let's emasculate the King of Rohan, so he makes Aragorn look cooler."
- "Expanding Arwen's role totally out of proportion in the first movie worked well, so this time, let's not only write her into the story, but also add elves lots of other places, for no real reason."
When, at the end of their brainstorming, they sat down and read their list of changes, they couldn't decide which ones to cut. So they said, "What the heck, we'll just use all of them." Frankly, Dave Barry's version of the script would have been far better.
At least, as Laura pointed out, the movie wasn't a total waste. It was an excellent tourism advertisement for New Zealand.
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