Rating: 
Summary: Fellowship of the Ring is an Instant Classic
Review: The Fellowship of the Ring, New Zealander Peter Jackson's first installment of a trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, is an entertaining and awe-inspiring movie. With a multi-national cast, majestic landscapes, jaw-dropping special effects, and a riveting story, Jackson's visual journey to Middle-Earth is one of those rare fantasy films that lives up to the term "instant classic."Jackson, who not only co-authored the screenplay with Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens and was one of the line producers, directed Fellowship and its two sequels (The Two Towers and The Return of the King) in a single shoot (with scheduled re-shoots when necessary) so that there would only be 1-year intervals between each movie's release. The intervening time could then be devoted to post-production and special effects work. While this seems risky -- and moviemaking is a business where risk is involved -- the gamble taken by Miramax and New Line Cinema certainly paid off well. The Fellowship of the Ring begins with a prologue that explains how Sauron, the Dark Lord, conceived Rings of Power to ensnare the various races of Middle Earth under his rule. To control these Rings of Power, he forged in secret a Master Ring, the One Ring that could find them all "and in the darkness bind them." But Sauron loses the Ring when he is defeated in battle against a final Alliance of Men and Elves, and for centuries the One Ring is lost and forgotten. The prologue continues with an abridged version of an episode from Tolkien's The Hobbit, when Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) finds it -- providentially -- in Gollum's (Andy Serkis) cave. Then, with a pastoral theme by composer Howard Shore and a corresponding change of scenery, we are introduced to the protagonist of the story, Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). Like Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: A New Hope, Frodo doesn't realize that he is going to be tossed into a large conflict between light and darkness. Yet, when the great wizard Gandalf (magnificently played by Sir Ian McKellen) enlists him on a quest to keep the One Ring from returning to its dark master, Frodo accepts the responsibility and goes off on his own adventure. The standard 2-disc set released last summer presents this movie in its entirety on disc 1 -- with no extra features whatsoever --no director/cast commentary or foreign language audio track/subtitles. There are two versions presently available of this "regular" edition, Widescreen and full-screen (pan-and-scan). The sound is good on my regular Samsung TV, and the image is sharp and clear...even though I suspect the movie would look far better on a bigger television set. The extra features on Disc Two are all right but not earthshaking, either. There are short featurettes and trailers, Enya's May It Be music video, plus promotional materials for the Extended Version DVD and Electronic Arts' video game "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers."
Rating:
Summary: An enchanting adaptation
Review: I am delighted with the LotR Special edition DVD. The extras are interesting and provide quite a bit of detail on the making of the Fellowship. Moreover, the feature itself is just breathtaking. I am a devoted fan of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the movie version of LotR to be so grand, so epic, so human, and so well done. The casting is superb. Ian McKellan makes for a grand, noble, and wise Gandalf. The New Zealand backdrop is just majestic and the DVD does it justice. If you love fantasy, you must own this. I love epic, great movies, you must own this. If you love movies... you must own this. It will be remembered as a great classic.
Rating:
Summary: how could it not get 5 stars
Review: how could it not get 5 stars it is based upon the best novel of all time. they changed things they shouldn't have but it is still excellent.you need to buy it. i have it completely memorized!! watch it love it read the books. a helpful hint is watch the movies first because tolkein has so many places and names in his books if you watch the movie first it is a lot easier to keep them all straight. oh yeah and it has Orlando Bloom and ELijah Wood! THe 2 hottest guys on earth!
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Summary: ...WOW!!!
Review: Lord of the Rings- The Fellowship of the Ring was an almost exact replication of the book and was stunning! I tried reading the book, but was not succesful because it was taking a long time to read. After I watched the movie for the first time, I have to admit, I was not impressed. In fact, I despised this movie! It was partly because I had never read the book before. I decided to try and read it and watch the movie again, because I thought I would appreciate the movie more if I understood what was happening; I was right! After I read the book, the movie made complete sense and now I love it!
In Lord of the Rings- The Fellowship of the Ring, Bilbo Baggins has a ring that he adores and everyone around him notices that he is acting strangely. In fact, it is ruling his life. Finally, at his eleventy-first birthday, he disappears into thin air and appears at his home again. A brilliant wizard Gandalf, whom he has known for many years, is onto his secret and goes to his home after he disappears. Bilbo was going onto a long journey where he could finish his book and live forever as a faithful servent to the ring.
Gandalf makes Bilbo leave the ring behind, to his dismay, because he knows that the ring can rule the whole world and can control the ringbearer's minds. Gandalf trusts the destroyal of the ring to the young hobbit Frodo Baggins and assembles a fellowship to take him to the fires of Moria, where the ring was to be destroyed. The Fellowship of the Ring was to take the ring to the fires to be destroyed. This movie starts there journey where the fellowship encounters many life threatening, and at times, deadly challenges. A few die, but the fellowship continues.
The story of this book was already very good, but once put into movie form, the book came alive for me. Since I am a very visuale person, it was like I was risking my life to destroy the one ring. It was magical! I love the Lord of the Rings and can't wait to see the second and third movies. I highly reccomend this movie to anyone who is willing to pay attention to complicated details, but is also willing to see an absolutely magical movie.
Rating:
Summary: A supremely lovely film
Review: I went into the Lord of the Rings not expecting much. I had only recently finished reading Tolkien's famed trilogy and my previous experiences with adaptations of literary works told me not to get my hopes up. However, this film must be respected even by those who have never heard of a hobbit. The film is remarkable in many aspects. Every frame is a work of art, whether showcasing the gorgeous New Zealand country side or using creative camera work to capture a particular mood, it is obvious that this is no slapped together bang for a buck blockbuster. The lines are given more in the manner of poets giving a reading rather than actors trying to earn some dough. The entire atmosphere of the movie is one of beauty and care. Even rarer is that the characters in the movie often show more personality in the books especially Aragorn. In the novels, Aragorn aka Strider aka any other name you can think of, often comes off as a cold, impersonal dues ex machina but in the film he seems to have normal human emotions. The casting is good, the score well deserving of its Oscar, and the plotting well done. Overall, I heartily recommend this to fans of Middle Earth and abstainers alike, it is well worth the three hours.
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Summary: all words fail me except one--fascinating!
Review: If you liked the theatrical version, I guarantee you, you will drool over this Extended Version! Unlike most deleted scenes, the deleted scenes on this DVD are excellent, and with most of them I couldn't understand why they were deleted until I listened to the commentary by Peter Jackson, and even then I thought, "But......." As the Amazon.com review says, the new special features are 'far superior.' Far far far FAR superior! On the first Appendices disc, there's about 2 and a half hours of documentaries, plus storyboard to film comparisons and about 2,000 pictures. The second one has 3 and a half hours, plus about 200 something pictures (I counted them myself). The documentaries are far more in-depth than the theatrical version ones--they go into practically every detail--making costumes, prosthetics, miniatures, weapons, armor, music, sound effects, digital stuff, and editing the movie. There is a JRR Tolkien biography documentary, two documentaries on the cast, and one long one about where they filmed all the different locations.
Most of the new scenes and extended scenes are interesting--It shows the entire ambush on Isildur, Bilbo starting to write his book, some different conversation between Frodo and Gandalf in the wagon, the Hobbits goofing off and talking about how "War's brewin" at the Green Dragon, Elves walking through the woods in the Shire and singing, the hobbits and Aragorn traveling through the Midgewater Marshes, Boromir trying to grab the Ring at the Council of Elrond and Gandalf yelling at him in Black Speech. On the second disc, There's a scene in Rivendell before Bilbo's gifts where Aragorn's at his mom's grave, Elrond bidding farewell to the Fellowship, Gandalf and Frodo's small conversation before entering Moria, more password-giving from Gandalf and more yelling at Pippin, a scene in Moria where they look down into a mithril mine, and more Cave troll. In Lothlorien, there's a nighttime scene where Haldir takes them to a fortress in a tree and talks with Aragorn. Then they show them walking through the woods until they come to Caras Galadhon where Galadriel lives. There is a little more talking with Galadriel, Sam making a poem about Gandalf's fireworks, Galadriel's gift giving, a nighttime scene on the Great River, in which Bor. and Arag. argue, more fighting in Parth Galen. There are also some small, five-second long extensions in scenes like the Ring Goes South, Caradhras, the Party, Very Old Friends, and Departure of Boromir. With some original scenes, though, they used different takes so that the extensions would fit in. But that's not really a problem......
this DVD without a doubt is the best one ever manufactured!
Rating:
Summary: Closer to the book
Review: This is a must for fans of the LOtR. Includes many extra/extended scenes with details that fans of the book will appreciate.
Rating:
Summary: Lord of the Movies
Review: This id the best movie EVER!!
Not only has it got a GREAT story line,but hot talent and hot actors!!
I thought that BRING IT ON would always be my favourite movie,but I was wrong.(which is never often,heeheehee)
If another movie becomes my favourite,then somebody will have to tape my mouth shut so I won't stop talking about it.
This would have to be the best movie in the world and I don't care what people say,Peter Jackson deserved to win Best director,hopefully he'll win it for The return of the King!!
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy to Reality -- And It's Good! (Part 1)
Review: More than fifty years ago, there was one question(s) that made the common LOTR fan (Tolkienus fascinationus) go crazy: "When will they make a movie of 'The Lord of the Rings?' If they do, just how true to the book will they be?" There were many failed attempts to transfer this masterpiece to the silver screen (Stanley Kubrick, The Beatles [who would have thought?], and even though Ralph Bakshi made it, it was still bad enough to be put under the category of "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!") But one day, a young horror (really!) director named Peter Jackson decided that, since nobody is doing "The Lord of the Rings", why not take a stab at it? Thus, one of the greatest movies of all time was made....
In the land of Middle Earth, there was a dark lord named Sauron (and for those of you who do not feel like reading "The Silmarillion", Sauron was once assistant to the original dark lord Melkor [even more evil than Sauron]). He created three rings for the elves, seven for the dwarves, and nine to the kings of men. Sauron made his own Ring and poured his own malice and hatred in to that Ring. To make a long story short, elves and men got ticked off and fought the armies of Mordor. Sauron got "killed", and the Ring got lost. And 3,000 years later, a hobbit named Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) found it and hid it. 60 years later, Sauron's spirit gets upset and wants the Ring back. Bilbo disappears to Rivendell (an elven city) and Bilbo's cousin, Frodo (Elijah Wood) is assigned to go to and destroy the Ring by the wizard Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) with a fellowship of nine companions: the hobbits Sam (Sean Astin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd); the humans Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and Boromir (Sean Bean); the dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies); the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom); and Gandalf. Together, they go through many trials, tribulations, and challenges together on their way to Mordor to destroy The One Ring.
First of all, this movie couldn't have been done better. And second of all, for those of you who think tht it could have been done better, I would just LOVE to see you go and make your own version and see if it makes over $300 million at the Box Office. I'm sure that the general movie-going audience will probably say that they liked Peter Jackson's version better. So just enjoy it as a movie, not a book.
Sorry. I had to get that out of the way. Anyway, the movie is absolute perfection itself (my opinion; others have their own opinions). The acting was top-notch, the plot was superb and original, and the special effects were....well, I can't think of a word to describe them yet....give me a second and I'll get back to you on that. To make a long story short, it beat "Star Wars: Episode II-Attack of the Clones in just about everything. In this movie, we aren't fed with junk that has been used over and over and over again (visually "stunning", but overall just apalling). We aren't fed stupid and corny dialogue ("I truly, deeply love you," drones Padme` to Anaking before they are awaiting to be slaughtered in a "Glatiator"-like fashion). Instead, we are given something that will be remebered for decades to come. It is only the beginning.... OVERALL: A+
Rating:
Summary: Lovin' FOTR!
Review: I absolutely loved this DVD set!!! It had special never-before-seen footage that enhanced the storyline even more, tons of special features that took you behind the scenes, and had wonderful artwork on the case and on the menus! I happen to be a huge fan of the LOTR series so I happily endure the countless hours of it! You might not be able to watch everything in one sitting though. This is a DVD that belongs in your collection!
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