Gandalf | the m0vie blog

317. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (#13)

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Darren

Hosted by Andrew Quinn and Darren Mooney, this week joined by special guests Grace Duffy and Charlene Lydon, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every second Saturday at 6pm GMT, with the occasional bonus episode between them.

This time, to mark the 20th anniversary of its release, Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The Fellowship of the Ring has been shattered. Its membership has fragmented into three smaller groups. Each of these parties – and many more beside – will find themselves playing a major role in the War of the Ring. The battle for Middle Earth has truly begun, and flames threaten to consume the continent, and any innocent caught in their path.

At time of recording, it was ranked 13th on the list of the best movies of all time on the Internet Movie Database.

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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: aragorn, conflict, Darkness, elves, environmentalism, epic, frodo, Gandalf, gollum, horror, humanity, industry, jrr tolkien, legolis, orcs, podcast, ptsd, rohan, Sam, The 250, the lord of the rings, the lord of the rings: the tower towers, the two towers, tolkien, violence, war, wormtongue | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “The Lord of the Rings” as a Blockbuster for the Post-Ironic Age…

Posted on November 12, 2021 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist this evening. With the twentieth anniversary of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings fast approaching, it seemed like a good opportunity to place the films in the context of their times.

Obviously, every work reflects the time in which it is produced – it speaks to a variety of factors (consciously or unconsciously) acting on the creative talent as it evolves into its final form. However, audiences also can’t help but engage with a work in the context of the time in which it is released. Peter Jackson shot most of his Lord of the Rings trilogy before 9/11, even if The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings was released in theatres three months after the attack. Still, it’s not to feel like the films’ earnestness and sincerity resonated with an audience looking for meaning in seemingly chaotic and arbitrary time.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: 9/11, bush, earnestness, era, escapist, evil, Gandalf, good, in the frame, irony, irony is dead, sincerity, the escapist, war on terror | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug

Posted on December 11, 2013 by Darren

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug represents a considerable improvement on The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Some of the same problems still lurk at the edge of the frame: the pacing needs a bit of work; the movie is about half-an-hour too long; it feels a little too consciously like one extended prelude to The Lord of the Rings. And yet, despite all these flaws, The Desolation of Smaug accomplishes a lot of what it sets out to do.

This is very clearly the same Middle Earth that viewers remember from The Lord of the Rings. Even the least obsessive viewer will still recognise the occasional familiar landmark or setting from the early film. It’s not just the New Zealand locations that shine through; great care has been taken to establish a geography of this fictional landscape. Viewers who have yet to memorise the names and routes on Tolkien’s meticulously-prepared maps can see that this is the same world.

It’s just being seen from a different perspective. The Hobbit isn’t really an adaptation of that much-loved adventure tale, at least not exclusively. It is instead being crafted as a companion piece, with the heroes’ quest providing a handy travelogue of a world in turmoil.

The gold standard?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bilbo Baggins, Desolation of Smaug, Gandalf, Hobbit, Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, J. R. R. Tolkien, lord of the rings, Luke Evans, Middle-earth, New Zealand, Smaug, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Thorin, Thorin Oakenshield | 15 Comments »

Non-Review Review: The Hobbit – An Unexpected Journey

Posted on December 11, 2012 by Darren

I always feel a little embarrassed to admit that I prefer The Hobbit to The Lord of the Rings. Don’t worry, I know that by any objective measure of craft The Lord of the Rings is a far more impressive literary accomplishment, but I never really connected with the characters at the heart of that sprawling epic in the way that I empathised with Bilbo Baggins. As such, it’s a massive relief to me that Peter Jackson turns in an endearing and enjoyable, if padded and indulgent, first instalment in his Hobbit trilogy. The technical advances and the somewhat cynical structuring of the film tend to garner a great deal of discussion and debate, but the heart of Tolkien’s introduction to Middle Earth is still here. The only problem is that absolutely everything else is as well.