Rating: 
Summary: Lord of the Rings
Review: Very well done. Sticks very close to the book. December is too long to wait for the next chapter of this trilogy!
Rating: 
Summary: Looks good - but lacking
Review: Very, very long. Watch it over two nights. :)
Rating: 
Summary: A Visually Impressive Movie. A Plot Deprived movie
Review: VIEWER BEWARE: This movie is three hours long. Not three hours of enjoyable movie viewing, but three hours of CRAP! Do not believe the good reviews, or see the movie because of the trailers, like I did! The good scenes, are there, but for three minutes at a time, for about ummm, 15 minutes total. So, there are 2 hours and 45 minutes of boring movie I had to sit through.Also, the visual effects are good. Jurassic Park 3 and Godzilla kind of good though, because the plot isn't THERE! There are impressive scenes of Mount Doom (?) and of the general landscape, and mildly decent battle scenes. I felt like yelling "GOTH ALIVE!" when I saw some of the characters though. Imagine the kid in all black working at Blockbuster or Kmart, take their personality and dress, and you have a Lord of the Rings character. The Elves and Rangers fit this personality profile the most though. The music is overly pretentious at times, and doesn't fit several scenes. The plot is atrocious. Numerous people and towns are mentioned with mystery and dread, yet are never seen. Some scenes are ridiculous, where characters are introduced as, (ex. not accurate) Agnathas,son of Herodotus...which comes across very awkardly in a movie theater. I imagine in the book, it comes across better. I've read the Foundation Trilogy and Dune, so I can probably guess Lord of the Rings follows those lines. Perhaps, one of it's faults is the movie follows the book too much. Big special effects scenes are telegraphed two years in advance. Even when they're not supposed to. For example: ***SPOILER*** On the way over the mountains, a bad wizard is blocking the path through. So, the dwarf (or someone)suggests an alternate way through: The Mines of Moraia. The dwarf claims this is the home of one of his friends (or relatives or something) yet reacts to the mines with dread on the mountain???!!?? What?!?!? He didn't know the mines were inhabited with monsters!!!! As you might guess, there were plenty of monsters there. And no, don't see the movie because of that big troll scene. It's at the end of this boring movie. You might as well be chasing a tiny carrot on a stick. **end spoiler** For a PG-13 movie, however, there are some inEXCUSABLE references to drugs and sex. And I'm 19 year old man, and no member of a prudish church in the south. ( I'm a catholic who hasn't been to mass since ummm... Titanic came out:) ) In one scene, a character is smoking, and he has the nerve to come out and say, (not accurate) "This is the finest weed in all..." Not to mention, numerous references to the boys hunting mushrooms in the forest, with a desire only surpassed by a heroin junkie looking for his next fix. Then there's the broken carrot scene... I don't believe this would have been tasteful in an R-rated movie. In fact, it's plain tacky. Like this entire movie. (...)
Rating:
Summary: Visually Stunning
Review: Visually stunning sets, scenery, and costumes breathe a breathtaking life into the fantasy realms of J.R.R. Tokien's Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. The casting is superb, with a beautiful Elijah Wood bringing Frodo to life in a believable manner, as well as other top notch actors from around the globe rounding out the cast. While it may not follow the book in terms of dialouge and key scenes, it does capute the spirit of Tolkien in such a way that fans of the novels should be satisfied with. Definately a movie to see more than once.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding but confusing for Tolkien neophytes
Review: Visually, Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring might be the most impressive film ever made. Within the first ten minutes your jaw has dropped at least four or five times, and as the film progresses it never stops delivering the viewer sumptuous, imaginary worlds that feel real, even tangible. Unlike the new Star Wars trilogy, Jackson's new trilogy seems to understand that audiences don't just need eye candy, but a combination of characters, plot, and effects that work as a whole to bring you somewhere you've never been before. And if you have read the books (which I have not), it still probably can't prepare you for just how fully realized Jackson has made Tolkien's Middle Earth. It is alternately ethereal, menacing, and best of all feasible. It looks like a real place, and it looks like it has been actually lived in. This sounds easy, but it's the failing of many sci-fi/fantasy films. Most treat their sets as either museum spaces so pristine you'd think the characters were forbidden to cough, or as futuristic garbage dumps that couldn't house a rabid dog, much less an actual person. Here, Middle Earth fascinates you, and you soon envision yourself in it. FOTR has been described as a foundation-laying first step in the trilogy, and in that sense it is a success. Essentially a three hour chase after a ring that does some very, very nasty things, it picks up new characters as it goes along, and this is where the film has its major flaw. While the characters played by Cate Blanchett, Sean Bean, and Liv Tyler may be readily identified by Tolkien readers, they remain elusive to the series' newcomers. Those characters, and others, are barely introduced, much less fleshed out. So the events involving them can be confusing and, at times, irrelevant. Of course, that leaves more room for the audience to become better acquainted with Elijah Wood's Frodo and Ian McKellen's Gandalf. And that's where the movies succeeds the best. The audience sees Middle Earth through Frodo's eyes, and as he travels the landscape, he conveys the same sense of wonder and fear that we go through as well. It makes the battle for the Ring feel important, and not just like a plot device. All of it feels real, and that's the ultimate compliment to any fantasy. But there's even more to behold. CGI creatures that, at last, feel real and threatening. A villain, dark lord Sauron, who looks like the personification of brute evil. A truly astonishing fight sequence between McKellen's Gandalf and Christopher Lee's Saruman. The ominous Ringwraiths. And much more which is best unspoiled. DVD owners may want to wait the fall out. November promises an extended, R-rated version of FOTR. While the film already is much too frightening for children, adults might appreciate a few more gory details. The extended version will also hopefully flesh out the more marginal characters in the Fellowship (and the pause button will allow weaker-willed viewers multiple bathroom breaks). Because that would serve to improve what promises to be a film classic for many years to come, perhaps surpassing the original Star Wars trilogy as the ultimate cinematic fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Focus on the EXTENDED version
Review: W00t. The extended version of Fellowship of the Ring is definitely the version that should have been in the theatres. If I had seen all the additional Lothlorien scenes in the theatre, I wouldn't have been griping for the better part of a year about how badly they messed up Lothlorien and Galadriel. This version gives you a much warmer Cate Blanchett, not to mention more lines for Celeborn - he doesn't look like such an idiot in this version, either. (Though I admit I still would have liked to see Sam at the Mirror of Galadriel, and I still prefer the animated Bakshi version of Frodo's offering Galadriel the ring--where she laughs with that beautiful crystalline laugh and says, "And I came to test your heart!") The other thing I was excited to see was the Midgewater Marsh scene, and Aragorn singing the Lay of Luthien. Wow. And the Sackville-Bagginses! Definitely setup for the third movie, when Frodo will return home to find Lotho was living in his house. There was a lot more humour, as well. You see more interaction between Gimli and Legolas, and Frodo gets a cute little line as the Fellowship leaves Rivendell. Not to mention the humour of Bilbo's reaction to the S-Bs. All-in-all, the Extended Version is amazing. I highly recommend watching it straight through, rather than looking at your menu and watching only the extended or new scenes. This watches like a whole new movie. Peter Jackson rearranged bits of the theatre version and interlaced them with new scenes--it's really very seamlessly done, and an exciting viewing experience. I didn't get a chance to listen too closely to the additional score, but my first impression is not entirely favourable regarding that--but it could just be because I know the soundtrack by heart, and Howard Shore rearranged some of my favourite bits. So I can't render an opinion yet about whether the music is good or not. (I'm still waiting for a 2-disc Fellowship soundtrack!) An unexpected plus with my extended version DVD is movie cash good for one free admittance to The Two Towers, beginning on opening night! Can't wait - at least the first of my anticipated six or eight viewings of TTT will be free! A note on ordering my DVD set from Amazon.com--they shipped it Monday, and it arrived yesterday (and this was with their Super Saver Shipping)--on Release Day! Kudos to Amazon!
Rating:
Summary: EXTENDED Version Review
Review: W00t.
The extended version of Fellowship of the Ring is definitely the version that should have been in the theatres... This version gives you a much warmer Cate Blanchett, not to mention more lines for Celeborn - he doesn't look like such a [weirdo] in this version, either... The gift-giving scene was intercut with the departure of the Fellowship from Lothlorien, which I felt gave it more poignancy. One mistake in the gifts was that Sam didn't get the box of soil and the mallorn seed, nor did Boromir get anything, but I still think they did a great job on this. Speaking of Boromir, his character development gets more attention in the extended version. Since Boromir is my favourite character, the flawed hero with the best of intentions, I was glad to see more of his heroic side drawn out, in addition to more interaction with Aragorn.
The other thing I was excited to see was the Midgewater Marsh scene, and Aragorn singing the Lay of Luthien. In Elvish. Wow.
And the Sackville-Bagginses! Definitely setup for the third movie, when Frodo will return home to find Lotho in his house Hobbiton gets a lot more attention, and I think the beginning of the movie is the part that was edited most extensively. The attention here is really very loving, narrated by Bilbo ) with an indulgent humour.
There was other humour, as well. You see more interaction between Gimli and Legolas, and Frodo gets a cute little line as the Fellowship leaves Rivendell. Not to mention the humour of Bilbo's reaction to the S-Bs.
All-in-all, the Extended Version is AMAZING. I highly recommend watching it straight through, rather than looking at your menu and watching only the extended or new scenes. This watches like a whole new movie. Peter Jackson rearranged bits of the theatre version and interlaced them with new scenes--it's really very seamlessly done, and an exciting viewing experience. I didn't get a chance to listen too closely to the additional score, but my first impression is not entirely favourable regarding that--but it could just be because I know the soundtrack by heart, and Howard Shore tampered with some of my favourite bits. So I can't render an opinion yet about whether the music is good or not. (
An unexpected plus with my ext. ver. DVD is movie cash good for one free admittance to The Two Towers, beginning on opening night! Can't wait - at least the first of my anticipated six or eight viewings of TTT will be free!
Rating:
Summary: DUDE!!! this movie ROCKED!!!!
Review: WAAAAAY better than Harry Potter, even though I loved that too. The ACTION, the STORY, and Elijah Wood was SSSOOOO good in this.
The scenery of the movie was astonishing. I could watch this movie over and over and over and over again and again and again and again. WHOO
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Movie, Awful DVD!!
Review: Wait for the 4-disc release in November. 'nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: Going to Wal-Mart
Review: Wal-Mart has the same price, available now with no shipping. Bye!
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