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Now that we know The Two Towers is not going to end where the book does, how would people like to see it end? And taking it perhaps a little further, how would people like to see the two individual threads end -- the Frodo/Sam and the rest of the Fellowship?
As long as the ending is as satisfying as the one to Fellowship, I really don't care where it ends. Fellowship is about Frodo and Aragorn, whose character arcs parallel each other throughout the film. Each is struggling with a burden that he has inherited. Each feels inadequate to the task that has been appointed to him. By the end of the film, each has assumed responsibility for (and at least partial acceptance) of that burden.
Because of that, I liked how the movie ended. I didn't care that Boromir's death and "burial" was plucked from the beginning of The Two Towers and deposited at the end of Fellowship. It had to be because that is catalyst for Aragorn's acceptance of his heritage.
While the ending of the film was satisfying to me, it was not universally so among audiences I was a part of. The exchange between two boys in their late teens best sums up one reaction that I overheard during several of my eighteen trips to the theatre.
Teen 1 (while the credits begin to roll): What the hell was that?
Teen 2: What?
Teen 1 (gestures toward the screen): That's it?
Teen 2: Yeah. (word is sort of stretched out, almost a sigh)
Teen 1: But it didn't end!
Teen 2 (after a silence that lasts just a bit too long): Dude, there are two more movies. You know, like Star Wars.
Teen 1: Yeah, but each of those movies ENDED.
I suspect that wherever The Two Towers ends, Teen 2 will be no happier with the "ending" of that film either.
OK, since we know that Shelob won't make an appearance in The Two Towers, I'd like the Frodo/Sam/Gollum plot thread to end with them underground and approaching her lair. The expectation of what will happen when they get there, of what she will actually look like, would be a delicious sort of cliffhanger.
The plotline with the other characters can end just where it does in the book, with the fall of Sauruman, Pippin's encounter with Sauron in the palantir, and Gandalf taking the young Took off with him to Minas Tirith. That sets up a nice sort of echo with the end of Fellowship, where the party splits apart to pursue their own separate journeys.
As long as the ending is as satisfying as the one to Fellowship, I really don't care where it ends. Fellowship is about Frodo and Aragorn, whose character arcs parallel each other throughout the film. Each is struggling with a burden that he has inherited. Each feels inadequate to the task that has been appointed to him. By the end of the film, each has assumed responsibility for (and at least partial acceptance) of that burden.
Because of that, I liked how the movie ended. I didn't care that Boromir's death and "burial" was plucked from the beginning of The Two Towers and deposited at the end of Fellowship. It had to be because that is catalyst for Aragorn's acceptance of his heritage.
While the ending of the film was satisfying to me, it was not universally so among audiences I was a part of. The exchange between two boys in their late teens best sums up one reaction that I overheard during several of my eighteen trips to the theatre.
Teen 1 (while the credits begin to roll): What the hell was that?
Teen 2: What?
Teen 1 (gestures toward the screen): That's it?
Teen 2: Yeah. (word is sort of stretched out, almost a sigh)
Teen 1: But it didn't end!
Teen 2 (after a silence that lasts just a bit too long): Dude, there are two more movies. You know, like Star Wars.
Teen 1: Yeah, but each of those movies ENDED.
I suspect that wherever The Two Towers ends, Teen 2 will be no happier with the "ending" of that film either.
OK, since we know that Shelob won't make an appearance in The Two Towers, I'd like the Frodo/Sam/Gollum plot thread to end with them underground and approaching her lair. The expectation of what will happen when they get there, of what she will actually look like, would be a delicious sort of cliffhanger.
The plotline with the other characters can end just where it does in the book, with the fall of Sauruman, Pippin's encounter with Sauron in the palantir, and Gandalf taking the young Took off with him to Minas Tirith. That sets up a nice sort of echo with the end of Fellowship, where the party splits apart to pursue their own separate journeys.
