the two towers

Went to the premiere of the two towers, a marathon event at empire bio which started with a showing of the fellowship of the ring, and wnet straight into the two towers.

there's little to say except wow. i'm stunned. it's a visually incredible production, and the acting is even better than in the fellowship of the ring. elijah wood is fabulous. he has such an expressive face, and some of the close-ups of a very tired and frightened frodo are incredible. gollum is also amazing. the computer animation added to the motion-capture of andy serkiss means there's none of that artificiality that is often the case with non-human characters. the movements are natural, the facial expressions significant, and all-in-all it's a wonderful visualization. and then there's the battle of helm's keep. one of the most incredible battle-scenes in movie history. the heer number of extra's, computer-animated and human, and the entirely believable heroics of gimli, legolas and aragorn. wow.

i'm a sucker for these things, read the books 4 times, including swallowing them raw in a one-week period at age 12, so i may not be the most objective judge of these movies. but my general feeling is complete astinishment. the two towers live's up the hype, and surpasses the expectations set by the feloowship. go see it! now! (I am going again tonight :-)