Rating: 
Summary: Incredible
Review: I loved the books and love the movies. Great acting, plot, direction, scenery, CGI, etc. May the Two Towers be just as great. Although TIME magazine says:"Good Lord, it's even better than the first one!"
Rating:
Summary: I can die and go to heaven.
Review: FINALLY, someone has realized J.R.R. Tolkien's MASTERPIECE of literature on film. It took 3 decades and as many tries.Not only did they get the look and feel correct, but the writing is near-perfect. All the right decisions were made: what lines of dialogue to include, what to compress for visual-time's sake, etc ... and they remained true to Tolkien (which is wise, since the more one strays from genius the worse-off the end result). Especially noteworthy is that classic moment between Gandalf and Frodo in the mines of Moria, where Frodo confides in Gandalf his wish that "none of this had happened." And Gandalf, in him wisdom, encourages Frodo that he was meant to find the Ring; that his present sufferings are not in vain and are not going unnoticed but are serving a Greater Plan. Peter Jackson, the LOTR's producers and Ian McKellan (who plays Gandalf) had better win an Oscar by the time of the third installment of this series. Not to exclude the other cast members of this most-worthy cast, either. Elijah Wood and his three hobbit comrads (namely Sean Astin) were born to play their respective parts. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine anyone else playing any of the characters (who else could convey Saruman the White's sinister darkness with such believable and motivated evil as does Christopher Lee?). Five minutes into "Fellowship" I knew they had nailed this one. It was that apparent. The care and love and $$MONEY that this baby required was all there, pouring from the screen into my dazzled and misty eyes...
Rating: 
Summary: Great movie, but lacks the depth of the book.
Review: Don't get me rong. I loved to movie: The characters were well presented, locations were wonderful, and the BASIC plot was accurate. My recommendation would be to get the Special Edition DVD fo it's added footage and content. Or, for those who can stand book, (Me, I love 'em) read the books.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent in every way
Review: What more can be said of the first installment in the movie trilogy of The Lord of the Rings? This movie is absolutely stunning. I have yet to find one person (that I know) that has seen this movie AND not liked it. This movie has all of the action, drama, suspense and emotion that can be fit into a movie, and it leaves you thirsty for the next in the series. Highly recommended!!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely THE movie of the milennium!
Review: The Lord of the Rings book itself is a masterpiece, Peter Jackson has outdone himself in making the written masterpiece visual. The dialogue is great, the action has you on the edge of your seat, the actors are awesome, and the scenery will make you forget that this movie was actually filmed in New Zealand rather than Middle Earth itself. If you have not read the book, this movie will not be hard to understand, I have brothers and sisters who are under 10 and have not read the book yet, but they liked the movie so much that they watched it about 25 times. This extended edition is even more beautiful then the original version. There are even more witty dialogues and a great scene of the elves leaving Middle Earth to journey to the Grey Havens. Even though that scene is no more than 5 minutes long, I was amazed by the footage of it so whenever I hear "The Lord of the Rings extended version", that is the first image that comes to mind. I strongly urge you to buy this dvd, pop popcorn, and sit back to enjoy the greatest movie of its time!
Rating:
Summary: Another GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Now I am a TOTAL LOTR nut, so this review may be a BIT one sided, but personally I think this is a MUST HAVE for all Lord of the Rings fans. This DVD is NOT what some people think: a scheme from New Line Cinemas to get money out of people. NO!!! It is a completely different version of the movie! It has 30 extra minutes of deleted scenes which are NOT in the vesion relesed this summer. It also has comentary from the cast, production crew, and the directors. Not to mention 2 extra discs of special features. I have learned SOOOOOOO much from this DVD about the whole experience of the filming of The Lord of the Rings trilogy which I didn't know before! The actors have some VERY funny stories to tell, believe me! And at ..., this DVD is a STEAL!!! And worth EVERY penny!
Rating:
Summary: Better than the theatre
Review: This version is by far better than what aired in the theatres. I wish that the director--or the production company--would have allowed this version to have been distributed. Without a doubt, the added 30 minutes changes the story for the better, providing a context for the movie that was likely missed by those who did not read the books. Particularly of interest are the additional scenes about the meeting with Galadriel, and the additional footage inside Moria.
Rating:
Summary: A few misgivings but still great fun
Review: For a reader who has become enamored of a book, it is perhaps rather naive to expect that any film adaptation of the tale will not disappoint in at least some capacity. The reader's imagination conjures up living and vibrant personages, in the mind's eye, by compare with whom any actor, regardless of skill, is likely to fall short; and, too, it can be jarring when the director's priorities-- of which scenes and lines and characters were most important-- are not in line with the reader's. Nonetheless, there is certainly enough which is good and done well in Peter Jackson's version of "The Fellowship of the Ring" to keep me satisfied and to move the most casual viewer to awe. From a cinematographic point of view the film is beautiful, and done on such a grand scale as to befit the epic scope of the book; and the New Zealand settings are exquisite. Certainly, a good deal of the book has been pared away by necessity that the writers might condense it into a three-hour movie; for the most part I was pleased with Jackson's prioritisations, though I had a few reservations. Some of the battle scenes, particularly the fight in Moria with the orcs and the cave-troll, run overly long, and have the end effect of assailing the viewer with so many jerky camera angles of clashing blades and desperate struggles that the scene loses both sense and interest, and I found myself simply waiting for the next scene without any great tension or excitement. One is given to think that the animators are having a bit too much fun with their CGI toys, though they certainly do not indulge that vice to such atrocious degrees as in most modern screen 'epics.' The movie is, I think, at its best when rendering scenes straight from the book; there are several moments which, while dramatic, were not present at all in the book to my recollection, such as the company leaping across the breaking staircase in Moria and Saruman's duel with Gandalf at Orthanc. Most of these scenes have a certain hollow lack of drama-- we know, of course, that the heroes are bound to escape-- and seem better-suited to a standard fantasy adventure movie, than to keeping company with adaptations of Tolkien's often subtle and understated prose. I also found myself wishing to hand the script editors a red pen at the various throwaway gag lines inserted into a few of the scenes, which are not as funny as the writers seem to think (though mercifully there are far fewer of them than in other movies of the fantasy genre), and at the rather minimal screentime afforded certain characters such as Galadriel (for whom I would gladly have foregone a few minutes of orc-bashing), with the end result that the movie affords a rather skewed image of their personalities. But I do not think these flaws would have chafed me so if not for the fact that there is so much in the movie which -is- wonderful, and it is at those times when we are most awed at the presentation of a thing that any miscalculation glares out at us most unpleasantly. Even with my caveats I recommend it to fans of the book; it is difficult to do justice to the book, but Peter Jackson does quite as well as one could hope for, I think, from any living director.
Rating:
Summary: Finally! And worth all the wait!
Review: The extended edition is amazing, DVDs often throw together some bonus footage, but this edition has in-film bonus scenes and extended scenes that appeal most to the readers of the Tolkien who were sorry to see some scenes not make the cut. If you're a reader and already bought the dvd, BUY THIS ONE TOO it's definately worth it. On the two bonus discs are included all the usuals: interviews; behind the scenes 'making-of' shots; directorial, cast, and production crew commentary voice-overs; and tons of information detailing how the brilliant Peter Jackson took an idea to storyboard, to camera, to film and the hundreds of tricks it took to make Middle-earth real. I very whole-heartedly recommend this for anybody who enjoyed the movie and INSIST it for those who are literary fans of Tolkien.
Rating:
Summary: Computer Users: Be Warned
Review: On many late model Dell computers, both laptop and desktop, you won't be able to play these DVDs. Your computer won't even know you have a disk in the DVD drive. The problem: your Samsung SD-616 drive won't recognize the disk. The solution: go to the Dell site and download the firmware update for your drive.
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