Special review for my 110th.
Review #110: The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
The Fellowship Of The Ring
Under the watchful eye of Gandalf The Grey (an incredibly old wizard), Frodo Baggins (a Hobbit from 'The Shire'), comes into possession of a gold coloured magical ring that has been passed down to him as an Heirloom from his Uncle Bilbo.
Gandalf reveals to Frodo that this magical ring is actually
The One Ring that was forged by an incredibly powerful Dark Lord called Sauron thousands of years ago. After studying the legends of Sauron, Gandalf learns that the spirit of Sauron lives on in an almost ghostly form, and if he is reunited with this
Master Ring, he will cover all of Middle Earth in darkness and evil for eternity.
Frodo immediately steps up to the challenge of taking the Ring to the powerful and wise Elves in a far away land called Rivendell.
But more unexpected adventure awaits, and many revelations will come to light that will take everyone involved in this journey to places that they really wish they weren't going.
Taken from J.R.R Tolkien's magnificent and history making novel, Peter Jackson has encapsulated everything fans would want to see and feel on the journey of Frodo and his friends.
For a start, a lot of the novels contain a great deal of random non-story and read almost like a historical document. Tolkien's books have been whittled down by Jackson and his writers to the bare story and have built an incredible screenplay in the process.
The other thing is the timelines of Tolkien's books. The book of
The Fellowship takes place over 20 years or so, but this first film takes place over a few months. Though for on-screen purposes, they had to edit the timelines I guess.
The other thing that the filmmakers have done is built Tolkien's world of magic and history so successfully, it really feels as if the viewer has been transported into Middle Earth.
A lot of it is CG dependent, but it's very well put together, and when combined with the magnificent sets that were built, it really comes to realism.
The main part of the the movie that stands out though, is when the cast are placed in front of the fantastic backdrop of Middle Earth.
Elijah Wood as
Frodo Baggins is mark of absolute genius. He's incredibly believable and captures the sheer essence of the character with such skill, it's hard to imagine
anyone else in the role.
Backing him up is the wonderful Sean Astin as Frodo's friend/bodyguard/companion/gardener called
Samwise Gamgee, and is another mark of genius. The on-screen chemistry between the two is brilliantly real and Astin is fantastically out of his depth, eventually becoming a stalwart warrior in the series of events.
Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf... in fear of repeating myself... is yet another mark of genius from the filmmakers. McKellen was absolutely born for this role, even though at the time of filming, he hadn't ever read the novels.
Viggo Mortensen as Strider/Aragorn though, isn't quite what I was hoping for. His character has changed substantially in the transition from book to film, but Mortensen carries the rewritten role brilliantly.
Backing them up are Sean Bean as
Boromir, Orlando Bloom as the kick-ass Elf
Legolas, John Rhys-Davies as the Dwarf
Gimli and...
Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan provide a touch of lighthearted comic relief as the Hobbits known as
Peregrin 'Pippin' Took and
Merriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck respectively.
Plus a gazillion extras and stuntmen as the Orks and Uruk Hai enemies for the main group to battle against.
The overall on-screen chemistry between the main cast is great throughout.
The other thing that gets the audience is the incredible actions scenes that show from time to time. They're exciting and very well choreographed.
All in all, though there are quite a few changes in the book-film transition, including a few changes to characters and even the odd plotline, it's still a fantastic movie and captures pretty much everything a fan would want from the source material. And it works for anyone who hasn't read the books too, it's
that good.
My rating 95%
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The Two Towers
Following on from directly The Fellowship of The Ring, Frodo and Sam are seperated from the rest of the group and find themselves stalked by a strange and upsetting character called Golum. They must protect the Ring from this creature and find a way to destroy the ring at the same time.
Meanwhile, Merry and Pippin have also been seperated from the group and captured by the Uruk Hai. In hot pursuit are Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, determined to save their Hobbit friends from the awful fate that awaits them at the hands of the Uruk Hai.
Again though... more unexpected adventure awaits on the differing paths that our heroes have taken and in the process, it will bring our heroes to the brink of destruction.
Another masterclass in filmmaking... again with more cutting and the editing out of Tolkien's random ramblings and changes to the plot and the characters during the transition, however once again, the filmmakers have
still managed to piece together a magnificent story that captures Tolkien's world.
The overall look of the film is more action oriented this time round but the character development involved gives the action a heartfelt excitement.
There's also massive expansion throughout the world of Middle Earth, especially with the extra characters that are seen throughout.
The CG work has also been improved, especially with the creature Golum, he's exceptionally realistic and Andy Serkis made his career in the role (I'll get to him later).
What really makes the movie stand apart from the first, is the action. It's absolutely immense. The audience are treated to a 10,000 strong Uruk Hai army, fighting against Humans and Elves. There's also an army of walking trees for the audience to get excitied over too.
The overall choreography in the action has been ramped up as well.
The acting throughout is as the first, Aragorn's role in the story is expanded and Frodo and Sam's side story makes for quite a dark turn of events and they all hit their roles with perfection.
Bernard Hill makes a welcome show as King Theoden, he's by far one of the best on show.
Karl Urban also makes an impression and the tough and able warrior called Eomer, and Nephew of King Theoden.
Andy Serkis is who steals the show though as Golum. The actor is never actually seen on-screen but the use of motion-capture and Serkis' voiceover in the role, Golum is exceptionally realistic and the CG used is top notch.
All in all, it outweighs the first film by miles with the slightly darker feel and expanded storylines.
But with more plot and character changes during the transition, I feel I must mark it down again like I did the first movie, though it doesn't take too much away.
My rating 96%
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The Return Of The King
With Frodo and Sam getting closer to the goal of destroying
The One Ring, Golum has other plans for the duo, and Sam must figure out what it is that he's up to before it's too late.
Meanwhile Gandalf and Pippin have headed to Minas Tirith, the main human city in a land called Gondor, as Pippin has accidentally discovered Sauron's plans to attack the place in the hope that it will send humans into a state of disrepair. It's up to Gandalf and Pippin to warn and prepare the city for the oncoming onslaught.
King Theoden, along with Eomer is building an army of King Theoden's men and a few allies and are also heading to Minas Tirith to support the war against Sauron.
Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn have taken a seperate path, where Aragorn must either face his destiny, or leave Middle Earth to fall apart around him under the brutality of Sauron.
Once again, the filmmakers have ramped absolutely everthing up for the third installment of LOTR.
Though there's not as many new added lead characters involved, the existing characters are given much more personal expansion in this one, especially with King Theoden and Aragorn... but it's with Frodo and Sam that the real character writing makes an impression as Frodo falls deep into the evilness of The Ring.
What the viewer is given though is a look at a few other various Peoples of Middle Earth, even though many of them are bad guys.
There's also a massive expansion in the action side of things too. The audience are given more huge battles that take up most of the second and third acts of the film... one battle in particular is supposedly close to a half million strong enemy force.
The CG work and choreography is also ramped up again.
The acting throughout is, again, spot on. There's more chemistry this time round (if that was even possible), especially between Mortensen, Bloom and Rhys-Davies.
Elijah Wood and Sean Astin though really steal the show in this third film. Frodo's descent into madness and darkness is exceptionally well played by Wood, and Astin's "Samwise
The Brave" is really a show of
genuine acting.
All in all, a fitting and satisfactory end to
Jackson's trilogy (I say
Jackson's trilogy, as it is Jackson's, not Tolkien's). Again though, various changes in character and plot mark it down for me... but it's
still an absolutely spell binding movie, a touch more improved than the second movie too and still well deserving of LOTR's title.
My rating 97%
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Because Jackson's LOTR trilogy is quite often classed as one big movie (due mainly to the fact that they were all filmed simultaneously), for the first time in my reviews thread I'm giving a movie series an Overall Rating:
LOTR as a movie Trilogy: 96%