Rating: 
Summary: Epic but flawed
Review: Yes, Jackson messed with the book, deleting some sequences, altering and adding others. And cinematically most of the changes were harmless, even though Tolkien purists will take notice and shake their collective heads. However, there is one exception that hurts the storytelling arc: It is not so much that Arwen rescues Frodo but that she uses "elf magic" to stop the Ringwraiths. If elves can summon such enchantment by uttering a few words, then surely they could destroy the ring (better yet, why doesn't Legolas use elf magic to fight off the cave-troll?).In Tolkien's world, magic was far from easy and often was very enigmatic. In the book, it took Gandalf's and Elrond's combined strength to create the water barrage (with Gandalf taking credit for the horses). In addition, it is Frodo who resists the mesmerisms of the Ringwraiths, thereby letting us (the audience) know that he has the self-discipline and stalwart soul to be ring-bearer. In the film, it is Arwen who stands against the Nazgul, uttering throwaway lines like some idiotic Xena. Frodo is weak during this sequence, yet later Elrond comments on his strength. In this instance, Jackson must use exposition through character to negate the damage done in the previous scene. Tolkien carefully crafted the trilogy and with few exceptions there were reasons why things happened the way they did. By altering such sequences, Jackson has damaged the delicate framework of the story. Yes, in total the movie is an exciting interpretation of the first (and second) book, but the underlying structure of the story is hurt by the director's deviations. I am not necessarily a Tolkien fanatic but rather a storytelling fanatic. I did not mind many of Jackson's embellishments, such as the Merry and Pippin escapades, but when the fantasy's logical structure is damaged, that's when I realize that the filmmaker succumbed to commercial pressures (I can hear an executive saying tripe such as, "make Liv Tyler a warrior princess because that's the fad, dude"). Let us hope this sort of thing does not happen in "The Two Towers" (maybe Liv can save the day at Helm's Deep).
Rating: 
Summary: People think this is better than "Star Wars"????!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: People seem to love to trash SW these days, & I suspect LOTR will be trashed in 25 years too, after much hype, & friends telling me how good this is, I decided to rent it, I tend to like movies set in mid-evil times, like "Conan The Barbarian" or "Ladyhawke" to name a few, however I was truly dissappointed with LOTR, for starters, I can not stand movies that have such dark settings, that you can't tell what's what, & LOTR has plenty of these, Ian McKellen's face off with Christopher Lee early in the film is hard to make out, the dark horseman are never really seen clearly because of the dark scenes, I found it very difficult to stay interested in this movie, Viggo Mortenson's Knight is good as is Mortenson as an actor, & seems suited for this role, but his scenes are also in dark backdrops, I eventually quit watching this movie, maybe I did not watch enough, but when movies have backdrop settings that are dark & hard to make out, I can't get into it, Lee's wizard is cool but hard to follow, everyone seems well cast here, but I do not believe the effects or what I saw of them are any better than SW, for people to treat this better is nonsense, both franchises have similar themes, but I will take SW over this anyday, maybe I just did not get it, but I tried!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Whoa
Review: If the theaterical release is any indication this DVD is going to be incredible. The dedication of the cast and crew is entirely obvious in the attention to the details of the beloved trilogy. Despite what you might hear, all of the actors had read the books before walking into their casting call except for Viggo Mortenson (Aragorn) who was convinced by his son to do the film. Thank God for young Mr. Mortenson. Viggo gives a great performance, surpassing his small roles in films like "A Perfect Murder". The only other Americans are two former child actors, Elijah Wood and Sean Astin (Yes, he is the son of the guy who played Gomez on the Addams Family TV show). Child actors usually put me off but Wood and Astin have real talent and are entirely aware of their charactors. All around, the sets are beautiful, the costumes incredible, and the props handmade with great attention to detail. This is Tolkien's world we're talking about here. I also recommend the extended DVD (as opposed to the theatrical release) to people who don't want to (shame on you) or can't (I pity you I really do) read the books. It explains somethings that I heard would be more important in the next movies. The preview of the new extended version seems to be pointing to more work with Merry and Pippin (the essential comedy in this very serious war of the ring), a little more character development of Gimili and Legolas (needed, but there's a little too much character development already), and more great pans of New Zealand's incredible landscpe. I'm telling you people this is gonna be one for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: THE LORD OF THE RINGS-THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
Review: THIS MOVIE ROCKS. IT IS FILLED WITH ACTION & ADVENTURE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY. I LOVED IT. I WOULD RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE FOR EVERYONE YOUNG & OLD ALIKE. GRAPHICS WERE WAY COOL. AND THE SPECIAL EFFECTS ROCK. YOU GOTTA SEE THIS MOVIE IF YOU GET THE CHANCE.
Rating:
Summary: The Fellowship of the Rings
Review: This movie is one of the best DVD's that you can buy. I recommend this movie to anyone and everyone who liked the Lord of the Rings books.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This was GREAT movie, and I'm surprised it did not win more awards than it did. I immediately went out and bought this as soon as it was available on DVD. I've seen the previews for the second installment, and I can't wait for it to come out!
Rating: 
Summary: The Lord of the Rings
Review: "Ahh, the book was better..." may sound cliche, but remains true in this case. However, with such a difficult and ambitious task of trying to bring the trilogy to life, they did an incredible job. Just in the previews, I was exclaiming, "that's Boromir, that's Gimli, etc." The characters were close enough to my mental image that I could instantly recognize them. A VERY difficult feat. And it's equally exciting for those who never read the book (like Elijah Wood, for crying out loud). You will definitely enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: J R R Would be proud of this
Review: This is an outstanding movie from beginning to end. It stays as true as possible to the original books and is much much more exciting then the original movies that came out. If you are a fan of the books you will become a fan of this movie as the Director insured that every little detail was as he thought JRR would want it to be. So sit back.. enjoy.. and become part of the Middle Earth.
Rating:
Summary: Just way too long
Review: One of the documentaries on the DVD pretty much says it all. They spent over a year in pre-production blowing glass, carving trinkets, and weathering the hobbit village. My take on the movie is that after all that work on minutiae, Jackson HAD to get it up on the screen. The result is a movie that needs about an hour trimmed from it (the pacing makes Attack of the Clones seem taut). There are way too many scenes that are extended just so you can see all the craft work. To make matters worse, this is little more than a movie about midgets being chased by special effects for two hours. Seriously, there's no food for thought, no real exploration of anything beyond what it feels like to be chased by bad guys. ...
Rating:
Summary: If you have not read the book, then this movie rocks!
Review: (My review refers to the 'theatrical' version DVD.) If you have not read the book, then this movie rocks!
And I have not when I watched the movie in theaters, so I found this movie, like most others, to be the "ne plus ultra". Forget Star Wars, I said. Forget Hogwarts and Harry Potter. Watched it twice. The casting choices for, above all, Gandalf and Bilbo as well as Frodo, Legolas (the surprise package of the movie), Aragorn (although he was only 2nd choice), Boromir, Samwise and Galadriel could hardly be topped. The location couldn't be better. Visual effects are 'magical', even though they have less CGI than most Lucas movies. Like many, I got curiouser, to borrow a Lewis Carroll word, and bought the books, including "The Hobbit". I had to fight through the tightly spaced lines and admittedly strange "English" language (Winston Churchill would have found it just right) but I finished all four. Reading brings realization that the movie will inevitably fall short. I'm not a literary snob. I hardly read books of this sort, although I do read reference books (science, history etc.). I don't gripe much about the compression of time frame. We all know Tom Bombadil and the episode on the Barrowdowns were removed. Regrettable (I would love to see Peter Jackson's take on Tom) but forgiveable. It's the alteration of the characters that disappointed me. I found it strange for Elrond to say in the movie that Aragorn has strayed from the path and has chosen exile, when in the book story, it was Elrond himself who set Aragorn on the path (of reclaiming his kingship), and knows all his labors, being his foster father. I also found it strange that Aragorn doubted whether he could be King. Sure, Aragorn had doubts, but not on this one, he never doubted his proper place. He willingly peered into the palantir and challenged Sauron because he knew his place. He summoned the Dead because he knew his place. He may look ragged, and his kingdom may be in tatters but he is King. They also made Isildur look like a miserable power-hungry fool, like all he did was push all Middle Earth over the cliff of damnation. For the record, Isildur was a great man, a mighty warrior and righteous ruler, second only to his father Elendil. And while he took the ring, he never really did anything else wrong; he returned to Gondor, turned over Gondor, which he co-rules and over which he has a legal claim, to his nephew(if he was a bad man, he could have taken Gondor for himself), he planted the White Tree, then went north to Arnor, but was ambushed in Gladden Fields and was killed. Anyone would have failed the test of the Ring, even the Wise (Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel) refused the Ring in succession when it was offered freely, because they knew they would fail. I also think the filmmakers took too much liberty enhancing the role of Arwen. As Tolkien expert Michael Martinez says, it is not inconceivable for Arwen to wield a sword and take an active part in aiding the Quest. I agree, but now that she has taken over the part of Glorfindel in Part 1, I don't think it is too far-fetched to assume that she will also take the role of Eowyn in Part 3 (The Return of the King). Perhaps Arwen, and not Eowyn, will face the Captain of the Nazgul in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. What's to stop the filmmakers from going that far? And why did Peter Jackson miss the special affection Gimli had for Galadriel when they finally met? Except perhaps for Sam, Gimli was Galadriel's greatest champion, he was even prepared to fight Eomer to the death over Galadriel's honor. That Galadriel was a witch was a myth (believed by Boromir and Gimli and most people who don't know her), but the movie seems to believe it. And how could they cut the part where Galadriel gives each member of the Company a gift? (OK, they included the part where Frodo gets the phial.) It could have been a wonderful part, especially for Sam and Gimli, who gets the seemingly impossible. Movies like Star Wars (1977), and now the Lord of the Rings, are made by the details that almost seem trivial, but which make the stories lifelike, and connect to us. LOTR:FOTR has the details, too much in some, wonderful in many, and lacking in many others. It does connect to us, and is still a great effort (I wanted to give it 3.5 stars), especially for those who have not read the book, but a little more faithfulness to the book and its characters would have been welcome. After all, there are a lot of Tolkien readers out there, wouldn't you want them to be pleased, too? I'm almost tempted to counsel fans not to read the books.
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