Rating: 
Summary: Holy .....
Review: I ignored this film for a year. I just was never a fan of the saga of middle-earth. And, even now, I probably won't be reading the books anytime soon. But DANG!This was an awesome spectacle and a beautiful film. The characters were well drawn and the action nearly non-stop. Was it faithful to the book? I don't know and sure don't care. It was a fine picture, the best fantasy epic I've ever seen. Harry Potter needs to go home. This is real fantasy, not the flavor of the month. Even if you don't like fantasy films, see this picture.
Rating:
Summary: What a thriller!!!
Review: I would have to say this is the best movie that was adapted from a novel. Peter Jackson did an excellent job. That was also because he had an all-star cast and script. I can't wait for the next movie to prmiere. I am filled with anticipation and I hope it will be equally as good or better than the first!!!
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: Generally I'm not a fan of fantasy novels and I must admit to never having had the urge to even try to read JRR Tolkien's epic books, written decades ago. Nor have I read the likes of Terry Pratchett or JK Rowling's Harry Potter books, although I must admit to a childhood appreciation of CS Lewis. A few years ago when I read that they were making The Lord of the Rings into a trilogy of movies and my favourite movie magazines writers were wetting themselves with excitement, I thought 'so what?'. Director Peter Jackson (Heavenly Creatures) didn't have that much of a track record, sword and sorcery was definitely not my thing and besides I'm an adult and I thought that kind of stuff was for kids. That was until December 2001 when I first saw Lord of the Rings; Fellowship of the Ring and was blown away by this cinematic masterpiece... So what can you say about Lord of The Rings that hasn't already been said? In my view in 2001 there were two great and I mean GREAT movies made, Lord of the Rings and Moulin Rouge. BUT did Oscar recognise either movie? Of course not because Oscar prefers mediocrity, Oscar prefers cynically made I've got a disability and I'm going to overcome it movies. The problem with Lord of the Rings is that nobody had a disability. None of the major characters was blind, autistic, schizophrenic or could paint with their left foot, and everybody knows to win any of the major Oscars you need a major disability, you need to follow a formula and you need to be popular and previously unfairly overlooked by the Academy for the best work of your life. Then eventually it will become your turn if it happens to be politically correct that year and if the movie studio spends millions of dollars on a publicity campaign. The fact that Lord of the Rings was perhaps the best movie of that year and outstanding Directorial achievement was apparently inconsequential to the Academy but then why should that surprise anybody? The Lord of the Rings starts by explaining the history of the rings, how they were forged, how the forces of evil were defeated and how through the greed of man the one ring that could control all survived and eventually ended up in the possession Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm), one of the diminutive peace-loving hobbits who live in the Shire. On the occasion of his 110th birthday Bilbo, overcome with wanderlust, sets off on a journey across middle earth and at the behest of the good wizard Gandalf (Sir Ian McKellen), he entrusts the ring to his young nephew, Frodo (Elijah Wood). However, it is not long before the forces of evil are in hot pursuit of the ring, led by another wizard, Saruman (Christopher Lee), under the influence of the abominable Sauron, the evil force that originally created and controlled the ring and that previously had plunged middle earth into darkness. This leads to Frodo having to flee the shire to the elf city of Rivendell, with three of his fellow (and rather mischievous) hobbits for company, hotly pursued by Sauron's evil cloaked nightriders. On eventually, and not so safely, arriving at Rivendell and after much debate it is decided that the ring must be destroyed, in the only place possible, in the fires of Mount Doom (where it was originally forged) and the quest to destroy the ring sets out in earnest, with a multi-nationed (although apparently not multi-racial) fellowship of wizards, Hobbits, elves, humans and dwarves. Once again however, danger is not far behind in the shape of the hideous and unbelievably ferocious Orcs and in the hearts of the fellowship themselves. Parents beware!!! The Lord of the Rings is punctuated by action scenes that lift the tempo of the movie and get the audiences adrenalin flowing but they do feature some a lot of violence - torture, mutilation, decapitation, death and I have to say that I was very surprised at the rating given to it in the UK, which allowed very young children to see it. For this is not a children's movie and despite it's mythic, swords and sorcery basis, it is certainly not Harry Potter. At the heart of Tolkien's story is that evil and hatred lurks in the heart of every person and that the ring draws these feelings to the surface and apparently, much of Tolkien's inspiration behind the moral tone of Lord of The Rings was the rise of the Nazi's prior to and during the Second World War. Hence, unlike most great mythological quests where the object is to attain some great treasure or object that will provide its bearer with some great power or wealth, at the centre of the Lord of the Rings is the quest to destroy an object of great power in the fires of Doom in order to vanquish evil and bring peace for all eternity). Although a posterior-numbing (nearly) three hours long, at the end of The Fellowship of The Ring I was left frustrated and desperate for more. I wanted to stay seated and for the movie theatre to immediately start showing the second part of the trilogy, The Two Towers. I didn't want to have to wait a year for the sequel or eight months for the DVD, such was my enjoyment of this movie. For Peter Jackson has achieved what supposedly could not be achieved in providing us with a fast-moving and totally enthralling tale, set against the beautiful backdrop of the New Zealand landscape; snow-capped mountains, beautiful lakes, rivers and valleys, idyllic farmland, great expanses of woodland and beautiful and exotic flora. The New Zealand tourist board will forever be in his debt. The sets and special effects are all excellent, as is the cast magnificently led by Sir Ian McKellen as the great wizard Gandalf, who does a magnificent job steering well clear of the ham. He is brilliantly supported by the likes of Ian Holm, Elijah Wood, Sean Bean, Christopher Lee, Cate Blanchett, Liv Tyler, Orlando Bloom, Sean Astin and in particular (in what might well be a breakthrough performance) Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn (aka Strider). Whilst Frances Walsh's screenplay must also be given much credit. Like many millions of other people across the planet I eagerly await the second part of the trilogy, The Two Towers. As for The Fellowship of The Ring it fully deserves five stars, if not six (five stars are all too often too easily dispensed by Amazon reviewers). Movie entertainment doesn't get any better than this and if you disagree, then you are entitled to your opinion. It is just that on this occasion your opinion happens to be wrong!!!
: )
Rating:
Summary: Awesome!
Review: This was undoubtedly the greatest movie that I have ever seen! Every thing about it was absolutely amazing. Some of the actors have, for the most part, have never been heard of, yet they delivered extremely good performances. Peter Jackson did a great job on the movie and only used special effects on what would enhance the movie, not detract from it. He also did not just enjoy playing around with the special effects, unlike a certain George Lucas. Another thing is the cinematography was excellent, and the scenery could not be paralleled. Yes, though Jackson could have includued more from the book, I am partially grateful he didn't, due to time reasons. If you have not yet seen the movie find a friend that has it or buy the movie! It is not a waste of money or time, despite what others say. This movie is simply amazing!
Rating:
Summary: A great movie deserves a great DVD...
Review: INTRO: First of all, I would like to point out that this DVD is spectacular (the Widescreen that is), and a movie of this calibur deserves it. Second, I would like to point out the length of the movie...yes, everyone knows its about 3 hours long (and if you don't, then now you do) and most will be a little bored if you're not familiar with this movie or J.R.R. Tolkien's works. The book was long, so the movie is too. If you are a total action nut, then maybe this isn't the movie for you. You have to understand the beauty as well, and at least have matured your movie expectations beyond Fast and the Furious and Matrix.
--------------------------------
PLOT: The plot of the movie...is well...unique. If you are familiar with the prequel to this movie/book "The Hobbit" then you are at least somewhat aware who Gandalf and Bilbo are and why they have such a long-lasting friendship. Also, you'll be familiar with the magic "ring" Bilbo discovered when he was younger if you watch The Hobbit. But anyways, the plot of this movie switches the view from Bilbo to Frodo, his grandson. This movie (Fellowship of the Ring) is the first in the trilogy of the "Lord of the Rings" and don't expect everything to be wrapped up in just this volume...although a lot will be explained. Without ruining too much, this movie is about discovering the true purpose of the magic ring that Bilbo discovered o' so long ago. I would rate the plot top-notch for fantasy, and extrememly well-put for any other plot line. The scenery in this movie is to be noted. It was filmed mainly in New Zealand, by Peter Jackson...so there is a lot of beautiful mountain ranges and such to be seen...you'll hardly believe its just on one area of the planet. A lot of computer generation and "blue screening" is used as well to make Hobbits and Dwarves look smaller than their environment and peers, but this is high-rate computer generation (a rare thing today) so you won't notice and it'll keep you guessing on how they did it.
--------------------------------
DVD: Ok, now that I got through most of the plot (even though it would take me a few pages to go through everything I wanted to) now I should mention the DVD itself. I, myself, bought the WIDESCREEN EDITION which is superior to the FULL SCREEN EDITION in almost every aspect. You get to see more of the screen, and its not shrunk down to an annoying level to make viewing difficult. The menus on the DVD are magnificent and I couldn't have thought of a better one myself, but there is one minor minor beef with it though. On the first disc (the Feature Disc), there is an "extras" option in the menu, but when you select it you are given a message saying "Please Insert Disc 2", which kind of makes you wonder why they even put it on the first disc to begin with. I don't care really so its no biggy.
--------------------------------
EXTRAS: The extras aren't really "super-abundant" but the ones that are there are pretty cool and are worth mentioning. There are a few TV Specials that are pretty interesting and a lot of little clips that tell how they made the movie. Also some actor interviews and some trailers. People complain that there isn't a "Two Towers" trailer, but you can see just about everything the trailer has to offer in the "Behind the Scenes of Two Towers" preview... (Two Towers is the next movie in the trilogy if you didn't know). --------------------------------
OVERALL: Overall, I would only recommend this DVD if you are just a fan of the basic edition of the movie. Why do I say this? Well, even though the movie is 3 hours long, they still removed a lot of essential stuff from it. If you are a hardcore fan of the movie that needs all of the cut scenes and 2 discs full of extras (including the Two Towers trailers), then I would wait for the "Extended Edition" that is coming soon. The Extended Edition will be 4+ hours and will bear 4 total discs to get its point across that this movie definitely gets what it deserves on home video. The Widescreen Edition is only for people that want the short version (as long as it is) of LOTR. All in all...GET THE EXTENDED EDITION in November!!
Rating:
Summary: Cinematically stunning and faithful to story
Review: This is easily the best movie I've seen in years. The scenery is a visual delight and the characters are well-acted too. Ian McKellen is best-suppoering-actor nominated as Gandalf. While he is certainly good, I think it's the dimunitive Hobbits that steal the show. I read the book years ago. In all the details I can remember, this movie is an accurate retelling. It should make Tolkien fans out of some who haven't been before, though I wouldn't call it a substitute for the books themselves. But it is a must see for those who are fans already, and it can be considered a wonderful supplement to the original. Often I find movies based on books I've read to be visually disappointing, but this made Middle Earth even more visually stunning than I had previously imagined. I'm sure many of us will be eagerly awaiting the sequels.
Rating:
Summary: This is the best they could have done!
Review: Well, here it is, the marvelous book series is being made into movies. A message to Bill Grant, the reviewer from England: Bill, Bill, Bill. There is no way the worthy director, Peter Jackson, could possibly have crammed all the material and events down to the last detail into one movie. The only changes in the storyline were made to shorten the movie, and even then it is quite long enough at about 3 hours. Why, the only important change was that they left Tom Bombadil and Goldberry out of the script. Other than that, what a marvelous job! One of the best movies I've ever seen. Nothing could possibly surpass that book, but nothing could surpass this movie either. A true work of art, made with tons of effort and research. Buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible stuff
Review: For decades, J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings had been very popular with book readers the world over. Eventually musicians decided to record albums inspired by LotR. Best example would be Swedish prog rock musician Bo Hansson who recorded an all-instrumental album inspired by the trilogy in 1970, and a few more albums inspired by LotR by different artists had appeared since. Then it hit the big screen. There was an animated version of LotR that was made in 1978 that was panned by the critics, and not well liked by viewers. At the end of 1999, I heard a non-animated version of the epic was to be made and to hit the big screen in the next two years. Of course, I had my skepticisms. Would it be all talk, and it never got off the ground? Would they embarass themselves? Turns out, none of that happened. I still had a little doubt because Liv Tyler makes an appearance (an actress, who I believe, only made it because of her looks and the fact she was the daughter of a very famous rock star - that is Aerosmith's Steven Tyler). Most of the rest of the movie consists of actors I never heard of, except for Christopher Lee, best known for those campy, low-budget Hammer horror flicks made in the 1960s. But all my doubts were thrown out the window when I got to see this film. The visuals are nothing short of amazing. Not only that, it's so far removed from the corporate nonsense that I usually face with a new movie that I highly recommended to those who had long given up watching new movies. If you have never read the books, you might find plot to the movie adaptation of LotR a bit thin, but the stunning visuals make up for the shortcoming. I have to admit, I am still not familiar with all the LotR characters, as I hadn't yet read the books. Plus the movie has a rather abrupt ending, but I hope to see the sequels to see how it ends. If you've read the books, don't expect the movie to be exact to the books (few, if any movie adaptations can ever be exactly like the books). This is one of the best recent movies I have ever seen and if you want to see a fantasy flick without the Hollywood glitz and hype, give this a try.
Rating:
Summary: BRILLIANT! Does justice to the excelent books
Review: The lord of the rings are arguably the best fantasy stories of all time. The movies are equally remarkable. BUY THIS MOVIE! The DVD has tons of special features, not that I needed any other reasons to buy this masterpeice.
Rating:
Summary: A MUST SEE
Review: I was always a little apprehensive of watching science fiction or fantasy films. So as I entered the theatre for the first time I was excited and yet dreading sitting through 3 hours of this thing. So as the opening credits started and the film began I found myself growing more and more involved with the characters and the plot lines. I was on the edge of my seat anticipating how Gandalf would get out of Sarumans evil clutches and if Frodo would live after getting help at Rivendell. The hours seemed to fly as the Fellowship continued their journey to Mount Doom. As the film came to a close I felt my heart going out to Frodo and Sam as the last words "We may yet Mr. Frodo. We may yet" were spoken. This movie is one of the best i've seen in years. It's dramatic, suspensful, funny at times and yet leaves the audience wanting more. I've seen the movie 3 times in the theatres and purchased the movie the first day it was released. I would recommend this film for anyone who is a movie lover. A definate must see!
|
