Two Towers: Was Gimli supposed to be funny?

[Fulit]

I read The Two Towers for the first time a few months ago, and I went to see the movie for the first time tonight. I don't remember Gimli being such a comedian in the book. He had more one liners than Rodney Dangerfield. He was be-boppin' and scattin' all over the place. Was he this funny in the book?:confused:

[QLD]

No, he wasn't that funny in the books, however it worked well in the movie. Just enough, but not too much of it.

At least he didn't step in a pile of bantha poo.

[Fulit]

Also, did anyone else think Faramir looked like Martin Short? Maybe I'm losing my vision.

[2-1B]

It didn't work well in the movie.
Take QLD's opinion of Hayden's acting in AOTC and multiply by 10 - that's how unfunny Gimli was in this movie. :p

[Darth Nihilus]

Originally posted by Quite-Long Dong
No, he wasn't that funny in the books, however it worked well in the movie. Just enough, but not too much of it.

At least he didn't step in a pile of bantha poo.

That's perhaps the greatest addition Peter Jackson has made to these films, is to make the characters into characters. I only got too see it yesterday, how freakin' awesome. GLu needs to sit down with his crew of 'technical wizards' and see how a CG character should be realised-Gollum was it!!!

[12inch Lando]

Come on now Caesar. "Don't tell the elf." was a funny line.:o

[derek]

GLu needs to sit down with his crew of 'technical wizards' and see how a CG character should be realised

even that scene with legolas flipping around on the horse from under it's neck looked real, unlike the majority of CGI anakin stuff we saw in episode 2. weta is a mile ahead of ILM in my opinion.:)

[BlahBlahBlah]

Amen, Derek.

And I thought Gimli was hilarious.

[187-Maul]

I have to agree with derek, that scene looked so awesome that it could've been real
and I too thought that gimli was pretty funny in the movie
"You could have picked a better spot", man did I laugh at that line:)

[The Overlord Returns]

Originally posted by derek
even that scene with legolas flipping around on the horse from under it's neck looked real, unlike the majority of CGI anakin stuff we saw in episode 2. weta is a mile ahead of ILM in my opinion.:)

I resectfully disagree. While I enjoyed TTT quite a bit (much more than I did FOTR) the CGI was NOT on par with ILM.

The opening scene was obviously puter generated. WETA should take lessons from ILM on doing a freefall scene.

The Legolas to horse movement looked VERY odd, as if he was doing something not even the most skilled contortionist could. I found it hard to swallow.

There were flaws in the merging of actors with cgi backgrounds.
There is a moment after arrowing a warg, where legolas runs down the hill that looks so greenscreened it's silly.

Gollum, on the other hand, was an incredible achievement.

[wedgeA]

I thought the only really poor effects shot in the film was the Legolas running down the hill that Overlord mentioned. Hopefully it will be cleaned up for the DVD.

On the whole, I don't think that WETA cgi is on par with ILM, but the difference is that WETA allocated its rescources better. They focused on putting their effort into Gollum, and that single character blows away anything put out by the Ranch. While shots like the opening Gandalf/Balrog fall are not quite as good as ILM, they're still good enough. Also, they have avoided cgi overkill, like using "real" Uruk Hai and Orcs for close-ups, and the use of actual sets and backgrounds. IMO, that provides a much more realistic feel than the best cgi could.

[Old Fossil]

I guess I didn't mind the Gimli humor so much, I just wish they had showcased more of his warrior abilities. Gimli was a fighter on par with Legolas, and surpasses the elf in melee. I didn't get that in the movie.

[RooJay]

Here's a funny bit of trivia I noticed about The Two Towers: David Wenham, who played Faramir, also played the transvestite stageshow writer 'Audrey' in Moulin Rouge.

...he also showed up in another movie last year - Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, as a wildlife ranger.

[Prince Xizor]

Overlord, I am going to have to strongly disagree with you on that freefall scene. That scene with Gandalf and The Balrog was THE COOLEST SCENE in the entire movie. It looked very real, and I applaud Weta for the amazing job they did.

[jpak001]

I gotta say, the freefall was one of my favorite scenes in the flick too. I just got a "academy awards consideration" TTT dvd the other day, and I've already watched taht freefall scene around 10 times. I cant find anything wrong with it at all!

I'm no special effects expert, so I probably don't know what to look for but when I compare TTT to ATOC, I think TTT's effects seemed more realistic (compare Gullom to Dex).

[Jayspawn]

I thought Gimli was hilarious, and worked well in the film. If you have a 3 hour movie without a few laughs it gets kinda dry.

[Fulit]

Oh, I thought he was pretty funny too, I just wondered if Tolkien had written any of that humor into the book, or if Jackson did it all. I guess my post title should have read, "Two Towers: Was Gimli Supposed to be funny?"

[JediTricks]

I would think "Two Towers: Was Gimli ORIGINALLY supposed to be funny?" would be clearer.

Personally, I thought the humor with Gimli mostly worked well, it pushed almost too far but stayed just on the right side of that Jar Jar-border. ;)

[scruffziller]

Originally posted by Fulit
Also, did anyone else think Faramir looked like Martin Short? Maybe I'm losing my vision.

Not really, now the lead singer of Radiohead, he looks like Martin Short.