Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD!
Review: I am a huge Harry Potter fan; i have every book she has written, posters hanging all over my room... you get the picture. My mom bribed me into seeing this movie, so I (reluctlanty) went with her. I LOVE IT! Forget Harry Potter! I've seen the movie 3 times, and I want to see it a million more! I'd never read the books until after I saw the movie. It stayed very true to the books, much more than the Harry Potter movie did. GO SEE IT!
Rating:
Summary: Read the book first
Review: I am a huge LOR fan. I have read the books like three times and I know that makes me look like a dork, but when you like something, what can you do. And no movie will ever come close to what the books have, because the books just have so much detail. But this movie did a damn fine job of covering the really important and entertaining parts of the Fellowship of the Ring. I would like to point out how [angry] I got sitting in the theators and listening to people here and there complain either about how long the movie was, or just not getting the storyline. Well of course you don't get it, it's based on a very long and complex book with an enormous cast of characters and plotlines. If you're not a science fiction/fantasy fan then obviously you won't like this movie. But if you are or if you're very open minded and like to see fantasy based action movies, this is definitely a must-see. The only complaint that I have about Fellowship is that I wish more of the story could have been put into the film but that would have made the movie obscenely long, which I would not have complained about but some people might have. Seriously folks, pick up the book, give it a read, then watch this movie. You'll enjoy the film that much more. Even the small story changes are forgivable and make the movie more entertaining. The cast is amazing, the battle scenes will blow your mind, and the flow of the movie will just keep you engrossed. But you have to like fantasy. Just a reminder there.
Rating: 
Summary: There's a reason why directors edit.
Review: I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan and even waited to purchase this special edition (4-disc) version of the film. Now I'm eager to buy the widescreen theatrical version. The theatrical release was (in my eyes) flawless. This new version is riddled with flaws and pieces that just don't sit well. There are just too many great scenes that just didn't, and don't, fit in the film and deserved to be edited out. The new intro would be great except the king puts on the ring, becomes invisible, stumbles into the river and drops the ring. But if he was wearing the ring, how could it have slipped off? There's a later scene that begs the question just how big is the shire? And why are Merry and Pippin so far out into the shire in this version? There are also a few night--> day--> night and day--> night--> day sequences that really take a beautiful piece of work and make it look like it was quickly and poorly pieced together. Most of the extra footage was blended in seamlessly. However, there are a few scenes, (not many, maybe five, which in total add up to five minutes) like the ones listed above, that really take away from the overall impact of the film. I'm happy with it, but in some instances we're shown that less is more. All in all, most of the reedited pieces are astonishing; however, some of scenes (even though on their own are powerful) should be featured seperately on either another disc or menu option.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible movie
Review: I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan, from Lord of the Rings books (the novels and books about making the movie and the characters), to posters of the gorgeous Legolas, calendars, bookmarks, desktops, and of course the movies. I just love it all! Having read the Lord of the Rings books, and hearing people say that Peter JAckson destroyed the real meaning of the book, and that it was nothing like it. And my response has been, so what? Peter Jackson did not destroy the books at all, he just reinvented the story in a way that would be entertaining to all generations including hardcore Tolkien fans such as myself. What people need to understand is that movies and books are both different kinds of art, and instead of stealing all of Tolkien's incredible ideas, Peter Jackson based it on Tolkien's work so it is not supposed to be identical to the book. Besides, if Jackson made it identical it would not only be stealing, and a total lack of creativity, but also around 6 hours. The Lord of the Rings was plenty long, so unless you want to sit around and watch a 6 hour movie shut up about Jackson doing a horrible job. The Lord of the Rings: 5 stars all the way, but it deserves more!
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Films Ever Made!
Review: I am a huge movie buff and I must say that this movie is among my top ten favorites of all-time. No doubt it was robbed of the Academy Awards for best picture and best director. The others in my top ten are: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Goodfellas, The Usual Suspects, Young Frankenstein, Moulin Rouge, American Beauty, All About Eve, Chinatown, and Harold & Maude.
Rating:
Summary: An amazing film
Review: I am a huge Tolkien fan, and I believe The Lord of the Rings, the books, to be among the finest masterpieces available in literary fantasy. Not being much of a movie buff, I wasn't expecting much of the movie. This one surprised me. The characters are so real and lifelike and like the way they were in the books, especially Gandalf, played by Sir Ian McKellan. The sequence of the movie did not exactly follow the book, and in places I felt cut short, as though I was missing important details. Still, overall, the movie was an AMAZING experience and one I would recommend to every Tolkien fan everywhere.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I am a huge Tolkien Fan, I read these books for the first time when I was 9 years old. I was fascinated at the time, and since then I have re-read the series umpteen times. I was very excited when I heard the movie was being released, and I could not have been more impressed with the final product. It is very hard to tell this tale in a 2-3 hour movie, and so many changes had to be made to the plot of the story. I feel that these changes, while hard to swallow for some die hard fans, stayed true to the spririt of the books and in some cases enhanced the story. All told it was truely amazing, easily my favorite movie of all time.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant film, superb DVD's
Review: I am a lifelong fan of the "The Lord of the Rings" and as such, I'm sure I wasn't alone in fearing that a film adaptation would ruin the magic of the story. I needn't have worried, as Peter Jackson's first installment "The Fellowship of the Ring" does a remarkable job of transferring Tolkien's work to the big screen. Yes, Tom Bombadil is absent, and Arwen is given a greater role to offer something for female fans, but the essence (along with almost all of the substance) is there. In the "Extended Edition" the viewer is treated to an additional half hour of footage. There is more exposition on Hobbits at the beginning of the film, the battle against the goblins and cave troll in Moria was extended, and a few other vignettes were added. However, what long time fans will be most pleased to see is Galadriel's gift giving scene. The whole scene is beautifully conceived and executed, and Sam, and particularly Gimli reveal new aspects of their personalities through it. Now for the specifics of this set: Discs 1 & 2 comprise the film and commentaries. For those of you who haven't seen the film yet, the director, Peter Jackson, chose his native land of New Zealand as the location of Middle Earth. I can't imagine that he could have made a better choice. While there is a great deal of CGI in this film, for the most part it is used to supplement, rather than replace, the landscape. For instance, a ruin might be inserted to imbue with history an otherwise gorgeous, but perhaps disconnected, landscape. As a result, the cinematography has a feeling of being grounded, of being "real", that one would never get from a George Lucas effects extravaganza. The film begins with a history of the Ring of Power drawn from not only "The Lord of The Rings" and "The Hobbit" but "The Silmarillion" and other of Tolkien's writings as well. While not true to the form of the novel, it does a superb job of imbuing the rest of the film with a real sense of history. In fact, throughout the film, it is Jackson's ability to ground the film in an alternate reality that makes it so successful. The viewer doesn't feel so much like they are watching fantasy, as they are watching the history of some remote time. I haven't listened to all of the commentary yet (at almost 16 hours, it will take a while) but the pieces I listened two were for the most part interesting and lively, which is surprising considering how dry such features can sometimes be. One thing that struck me is how much passion everyone associated with the project has for it. It really comes across that this was a labor of love, which goes a long way towards explaining why the film was so successful. Discs 3 & 4 are without a doubt the best collection of behind the scenes special features I have ever encountered. From the start, which is an absolutely brilliant history of Tolkien and his works, all the way through to the final post-production tweaks, the viewer is treated to an in depth, but never dull, look at the creation of Middle Earth. I rarely watch of the behind the scenes footage on other discs because it has a tendency to be dry and geared towards the real film nut. In this instance though, there is enough substance to satisfy even the most voracious film historian, while not being overwhelming to the layperson. Furthermore, all of the features are always firmly rooted in the context of "The Fellowship of the Ring"; the documentary never strays into theoretical jargon or technical challenges. Rather it focuses on how the film was made, and the obstacles that were overcome. In addition to the Tolkien biography that I already mentioned (and which is the best I have seen anywhere) I particularly enjoyed the features on the cast and the costumes. The cast feature does a remarkable job of showing how the primary actors really gelled into a real life fellowship of their own. And the costume feature is absolutely brilliant, as I shows the overwhelming volume of costumes, and particularly armor, that was required the make Middle Earth come alive. Finally, there is a National Geographic documentary on Tolkien and "The Lord of the Rings" included, although it is separate from the boxed set. It's actually a pretty good documentary in and of itself, but it is really overwhelmed by Discs 3 & 4. There is no possible way that they could have covered the length and breadth of Middle Earth to the same degree. That said, there are some interesting moments, particularly, Tolkien's fascination with the Finnish epic, "The Kalevala". "The Fellowship of the Ring" is the superb first installment of what is destined to be a classic trilogy of films. While not always exact in its correlation to the book, it nonetheless does an excellent job of capturing the key components of Tolkien's work: honor, duty, and above all, friendship. At the same time, the DVD's really raise the bar for what constitutes "special features". Aside from spectacular picture and sound, there are hours of fascinating features that should answer just about any question you could come up with about the film or its production.
Rating:
Summary: The extended DVD is a better film.
Review: I am a Tolkien fan, yes, but hopefully a fairly sophisticated one--I should hope that I at least the ability to play a rather sophisticated role with a somewhat focused air of verisimilitude. When I first began to see the ads for this film, serious doubts began to creep up and I began to worry that New Line Cinema might be adamant about deleting certain key scenes. Not my own personal favorite scenes, mind you, but scenes vital to the growth of the characters and the movement of the story. The film couldn't recreate the opulence of Tolkien's prose, and there was the possibility that this film might be absolutely abysmal trash. (Which some do indeed consider it to be.) I saw the theatrical release when it came out, and enjoyed it thoroughly, but it was as I feared: several key scenes had indeed been deleted, such as the fellowship's departure from Rivendell and Gimli's infatuation with the Elf-queen, Galadriel. In the book, this cast Gimli as a sensitive soul, something one would not expect from a dwarf of his stature and from the past history between the elves and the dwarves and their propensity towards detestation against one another. The pacing of the film, too, was unfortunately mixed in some areas, and made for a slightly less than smooth experience overall. But as I said, I did enjoy it and was looking forward to what I heard was the extended DVD, with more material not yet seen. As it turns out, the film as presented on this extended version is actually a much better film than the original release; the pacing is much smoother, and more scenes are added, more time given to the development of the characters. (The character development in the theatrical release was, to my utmost frustration and vexation, rather shoddy. They simply weren't given enough time on screen to develop.) This is an excellent film that raises itself above the usual disappointing Hollywod rubbish, and it does so using its own strength and not merely relying upon the veritable broken dam of hype that a film like this invariably becomes attached to. Peter Jackson has done an excellent job interpreting this book onto the screen, and an equally excellent job skeletonizing the 400-page book into a screenplay less than half that length, and while Tolkien's book is indeed better than the film, this is a film with many qualities; hopefully, this three-piece saga will become a burgeoning epic, and once seen in its entire fruition, that this will perhaps be looked upon as a worthwhile cinematic masterpiece. For my own part, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Films Just Got Better...
Review: I am a Tolkien zealot (as I like to put it), and though I loved "The Fellowship of the Ring" when it hit theaters last year, I had my share of problems with it, being the die-hard fanatic that I am. Some of these were liberties taken by the filmmakers that could not, and cannot, be reversed (Arwen instead of Glorfindel, Aragorn's leaving of Anduril in Rivendell, etc.). However, this extended "director's cut" has fixed quite a few of the earlier edit's annoyances. Though I loved the original film despite the occasional niggle, this expanded version FEELS more like Tolkien. The pace is less rushed (even though the first film was very long itself), and there are considerably more character moments. Gimli and Boromir are the most notable improvements. Boromir was always excellently developed (even more so now), but Gimli, as a character, was very weak. In fact, Gimli's portrayal as seen by the original cut was a severe disappointment, as Gimli is one of my favorite characters, and he had been reduced to a surly complainer who seemed to lack all but the most basic of emotions. Now, however, Gimli feels more like Gimli, thanks to his moments with Galadriel and Haldir in Lothlorien. One of the best new scenes, however, involves Sam and Frodo, as they spy a troupe of Elves departing Middle Earth. Almost every second of added footage is completely worthwhile. This stuff isn't just for fans of the novels, though - the added scenes make for a more coherent and heartfelt picture (and a slightly more violent one as well). My only real beef with the extended version is that it spans the course of TWO discs, which brings with it the annoyance of exchanging when one has ended. Add to this new and improved Fellowship a whole horde of previously unseen features and you have the ultimate Fellowship of the Ring presentation. Tolkien fans and fans of the films should not pass this one up under any circumstances.
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