a 3 hour tour

Last night I saw Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers with Judy. I give it 37 out of 38.219 specs of lint. (that's a good rating) I did have some problems with some of the editing decisions. It seems that in the wake of September 11, 2001, the writers and director Peter Jackson decided to change some of the characters and plot devices. Here are some of the more controversial changes:

changing the name of Mordor (home of Sauron) to "Iraqdor"
Sauron's name was changed to "Saddam"
Saruman's name was changed to "Osama-man"
the CG artists digitally added turbans on each of the 10,000 Uruk Hai heads in the Battle of Helm's Deep
Gandalf the White was replaced with "George the White" (subtle...)
the scene with Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli raising a large, tattered American flag after the Battle of Helm's Deep

but perhaps the most blatant change was the scene (added in post production) of 19 Orcs hijacking two 767's and dramatically flying them into the Two Towers while aboard a third 767, Harrison Ford successfully defeated the Orc hijackers and landed the jumbo jet at Gondor. Just after the planes hit, there was a cut to a closeup of Frodo (Elijah Wood) shedding a single solitary tear while the reflection of the crumbling towers shown in his digitally-enhanced blue eyes. I mean, that part just didn't make sense at all. I don't know how the producers got away with such a blatant disregard for the story or setting. But I have to admit, I got a little teary-eyed after the defeat of the ~~taliban~~ Uruk Hai when Aragorn eloquently stated, "The Axis of Evil will never defeat Middle Earth's values of Democracy, Freedom, and Justice under God. We will pursue these evil-doing terrorists to Afghanigard, Iraqdor and wherever their evil network of evil rears it's ugly, evil, Islamic head." as all the Ewoks cheered.