A Pretty Darn Good Movie, All Things Considered

After Chi Alpha tonight, Jill and I (Jill, by the way, is my beautiful wife) are probably going to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

The Two Towers is the best Lord of the Rings movie and anyone who disagrees is a moron (heh heh).

All three films are superb, though. It's rare to find a trilogy in which one or two films don't substantially rise above the others (Empire, Godfather, Back to the Future, Violent Person).

But despite the parity within the LOTR trilogy, I do, in fact, prefer The Two Towers. Such preference is probably lingering afterglow from my first viewing of the film.

Not since the first time I saw Star Wars did I have so many "chill" moments--involuntary shudders or goose-bumps, physical manifestations of something that resonates within. In other words, something that makes you want to say "Boy, that was cool."

Perhaps it was excessive air conditioning in the theater or too glutinous an intake of Coke, but such moments abounded--with varying degrees of intensity, of course. Gandalf performing the exorcism, Theoden putting on his armor, and the Ents marching off to war were all of the, "boy, that was cool" variety.

Side note: Ents are stupid-looking giant trees that talk. If Peter Jackson could make the Ents marching to war meaningful and powerful, why couldn't George Lucas have done the same with the Gungans? (Hint: Because George is an idiot) -I cite my brother Andrew as the source for this note.

Other moments--the elves arriving at Helm's Deep, Theoden deciding to ride out and meet the enemy, and, of course, Gandalf arriving at first light to save the day--had an uncommonly high chill factor.

So Two Towers is best. That's my subjective argument, and I'm sticking with it.

Also, Troy stinks. Don't ever see that crummy movie.