The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Let me tell you about a weird Thanksgiving tradition my family had for years. Every year we would watch all three extended editions of Lord of the Rings, one every Thursday. When the Hobbit trilogy came out, my sister purchased those and we upgraded to six weeks. And every year we had a different name. There was "Shirefest," "Hobbit Fest, "Thanksgimli" and a couple others. Now some of the family has moved out, and it's been a while since we did it. Now my family has decided to bring it back this year (although the Hobbit movies were owned by my sister who's moved to another state), so we're only doing the original LOTR trilogy. I admit, the original theatrical edition felt rushed, so I wasn't in love with it the first time I saw it. My step-grandmother got us into the movies, and it wasn't long until my mother bought me the trilogy of books, even though I only finished the first because I wasn't fond of Tolkien's rambling. But the movies still remain dear to me heart for the sheer cinematic power and effort that Jackson put into the trilogy.

Pretty much everyone knows the story of Frodo and the Ring. About fifty years after Bilbo Baggins' adventure with a baker's dozen of dwarves and the world's favorite wizard (excluding the damn mouse), the old hobbit is planning to leave his hobbit home of The Shire when his wizard friend Gandalf notices him acting strangely, and attributes it to Bilbo's magic ring that he found in a grisly little monster's cave. Heeding Gandalf's warning, he leaves the ring and his home with his nephew, Frodo. But Gandalf leaves to research the ring, and finds that the ring is in fact the cursed One Ring, an artifact created by the late warlord Sauron, which he used to control the minds of kings and queens that he gave other magic rings to before his defeat. Frodo realizes that Sauron's forces are after him, and with the help of three of his friends he leaves home in search of the Elvin city of Rivendell. When it's heard that the One Ring is constantly being sought after by Sauron's forces, Frodo decided to take the ring to the only place it can be destroyed, the lava of Mt. Doom where Sauron made it. But even though he has Gandalf, his friends and warriors from the three sentient species of Middle-Earth to help him, can Frodo resist the magical temptation of the Ring which drives people to madness? Especially now that Sauron has a new lackey, the one wizard more powerful than Gandalf?

OK, this is gonna be a long-ass review.

Does the movie remain faithful to the book? 80% I'd say. They cut out the whole Tom Bombadil subplot which I found pointless back then and I find pointless now. They made the movie largely about the battles, but still managed to let a lot of the story's emotional background focus on Frodo being at the center of all of this turmoil, and this doesn't just bounce off of his friends, but they bounce off of him perfectly. Sam, Merry and Pippin (the other three Hobbits) are not only acting as proper comedic relief, but they act as real friends who stand with Frodo no matter what, even to the bitter end of the movie which includes the first part of the second novel where the three warriors battle a bunch of the evil wizard Saruman's forces.

Does it really need to be said at this point that the Special Effects are revolutionary? Even eleven years after the release of this film, the first Hobbit film has difficulty topping these effects. Even the Balrog itself (with its seriously badass design) has special effects that the MCU has difficulty topping. And even outside the CGI, wait til you hear about the constant types of special effects that make characters seem shorter than others for the purposes of being dwarves and Hobbits. In the scene at the beginning where Frodo was sitting next to Gandalf, he wasn't. The actor Elijah Wood was sitting right behind Ian McKellen, and the cart was made to look like it was the same seat. All these effects for a four-hour movie were done on a budget of 93 million.

As for the casting, this was absolutely perfect. We've got two experienced child actors Elijah Wood and Sean Astin taking the lad as Frodo and Sam, and who would've thought that these two would make such perfect hobbits? Then we have Dominic Monaghan in his big screen debut and the young unknown Billy Boyd taking the helms of Merry and Pippin, and the two are just incredible, bringing these characters to life effortlessly. And these four already have a lot on their plate, what with Elijah Wood having to butt heads with Ian Holm of Alien as Bilbo and Ian McKellen from X-Men as Gandalf on several occasions, and McKellen already has to deal with Christopher Lee himself as Gandalf. Hell, this movie does Lee's acting abilities perfect justice, unlike a Dracula movie I can think of that didn't give him any lines as Dracula after the first act.

And then we have the young unknown Orlando Bloom completing a the Aragorn, Legalos and Gimli threesome as the elf himself, butting heads with the legendary John Rhys-Davis as the dwarf, and Viggo Mortensen who already made his bones in quite a few movies with some big name actors, suich as when he played the devil in the Christopher Walken film The Prophecy or when he starred with a few big names in the remake of Psycho. And strangely enough, all three of these characters fit their bills perfectly. This justifies the fact that Aragorn doesn't have a British accent in the film. Hell, there were a few people auditioned for the part of Aragorn, and Russell Crowe couldn't make it, so Viggo was the back-up. His audition started immediately after a bunch of actors in costume rushed him to fight, and he sword-fought them off. That was his audition, as detailed by the sword documentary Reclaiming the Blade. And then we have the man who is considered the undisputed king of modern death scenes, Sean Bean, taking the role of Borimir to its fullest extent, all the way through the Gondorian strength and the existential emotion.

Other big name actors make their way into this iconic film. Would Galadriel be Galadriel without Cate Blanchett? Maybe if you got Tilda Swinton, but she was already busy with a few films. I mean, Cate Blanchett is like the freakiest woman to appear on screen, freakier than Christina Ricci. And our beautiful little lady Liv Tyler (daughter of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith), plays Aragorn's elvish love interest Arwen with lots of passion (and whispering) while the iconic Hugo Weaving of the Matrix takes the role of her father Elrond, and pulls off the wise old elf role as easily as he pulled off a Smith agent. Easier even.

But the real question here is: does the extended version beat the original?

Honestly, it's been so long since I've seen the theatrical edition that I can't even remember most of which scenes were omitted from the original. Many of the scenes in the theatrical edition were extended on their own, but the second intro sequence in which Bilbo details the lives of Hobbits gives us incredible insight on the mentality of the species, something the original struggled with because of the rushed time. The Shire is absolutely gorgeous, and the fake hair and feet given to the Hobbit actors are as real and lively as the sets. Of course, all of the sets are realistic and gorgeous, and the cinematography is out of this world.

Let me also say that, while Tolkien himself composed much of the music, it was Trevor Jones who not only brought these compositions and themes to incredible life, but with his own compositions he made something iconic. I don't know about you, but I occasionally get the sudden urge to play or hum these tunes in my head, something most fantasy adventures are sorely missing. And I'm not talking about remixes.



Well, I'd say that thanks to the better pacing, LOTR 1 is a four-hour movie you can watch in one day and never feel guilty about wasting time, not like other four-hour flicks like the Dinotopia film. Everything about this movie is pretty much flawless. The mystique, the adventure, the horror and the world-building is only half of it, but the cast is what really does it. This is a fantasy movie the world will be struggling to beat for years, even for people making movies of other genres. The only reason this is not my number one is because it's only part one of something originally meant to be a third, unlike my number one which was meant to stand on its own despite the fact that it got two sequels: The Godfather.

= 100/100