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The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring
(directed by Peter Jackson, 2001)
I had never seen one of these Lord of the Rings movies all the way through until now. I'm very surprised that I was able to sit through the first one for the entire three hours without taking a break (although I did pause it twice.) I've tried to watch it in the past but could not get past the very beginning - with all the Hobbits in their Hobbit town, celebrating Bilbo Baggins' birthday. It never appealed to me. However, almost a decade has passed and now I can finally say... I'm ready for it.
The fact that these movies are now on Blu-ray helped, but I have to say -- I've had the Blu-rays of these movies for a year now, exactly, and I never watched one till yesterday. The Fellowship of the Ring was very beautiful. The images and the colors all created a warm, happy atmosphere, even during the film's darker moments. Nothing ever got depressingly dull or drab. I still don't particularly love the Hobbits in their little town and I think Gandalf is kinda creepy and I think Frodo is too annoyingly effeminate, but other than that, The Fellowship of the Ring worked for me. At least Frodo has Sean Astin for a boyfriend, who I think is cute. I also thought Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) was sexy, but I'm not completely crazy about him like some people have seemed to be.
Basically, the story, for those of you who don't know, concerns a group of people (the Fellowship of the Ring) who set off to destroy a very powerful ring that ended up in the hands of young hobbit, Frodo (Elijah Wood). As they stroll through the forests and other dangerous mountains, he is stalked and chased by ghouls and monsters and evil beings that want to kill him -- or, at least, do whatever they can to collect the ring from him. For the ring, you see, has an evil master, whose spirit still exists and still longs to have his ring back -- he lost it thousands of years ago in a war.
The Fellowship of the Ring was pretty interesting and captivating for the first half of the movie... the second half, however, lost power. This is a three hour movie -- and, heavens, there's actually an extended version that lasts four hours. I think some scenes in this three hour film are kinda unnecessary (for instance, when Frodo meets Galadriel in Lothlorien) and there are bunches of moments near the end where I was like, What's happening? I'm ready for this to end now. When it did end, I was like, eh. There's not much going on here. I also think many of the characters aren't really that fleshed out. People sort of move about like action figures.
But there's resonance and deep emotion, here. Profound wisdom and life lessons. I don't really know what else to say except that I look forward to watching The Two Towers and The Return of the King and finally being able to say, "I have seen The Lord of the Rings movies. Yes."
Nine hours for the whole thing, if you don't do the extended cuts. Six more hours to go. That's like watching six one hour TV shows. Doable. That's what I keep telling myself... pretend it's a miniseries... pretend it's a miniseries. You can get through this. You can. You must. You will.
The Fellowship of the Ring
(directed by Peter Jackson, 2001)
I had never seen one of these Lord of the Rings movies all the way through until now. I'm very surprised that I was able to sit through the first one for the entire three hours without taking a break (although I did pause it twice.) I've tried to watch it in the past but could not get past the very beginning - with all the Hobbits in their Hobbit town, celebrating Bilbo Baggins' birthday. It never appealed to me. However, almost a decade has passed and now I can finally say... I'm ready for it.
The fact that these movies are now on Blu-ray helped, but I have to say -- I've had the Blu-rays of these movies for a year now, exactly, and I never watched one till yesterday. The Fellowship of the Ring was very beautiful. The images and the colors all created a warm, happy atmosphere, even during the film's darker moments. Nothing ever got depressingly dull or drab. I still don't particularly love the Hobbits in their little town and I think Gandalf is kinda creepy and I think Frodo is too annoyingly effeminate, but other than that, The Fellowship of the Ring worked for me. At least Frodo has Sean Astin for a boyfriend, who I think is cute. I also thought Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) was sexy, but I'm not completely crazy about him like some people have seemed to be.
Basically, the story, for those of you who don't know, concerns a group of people (the Fellowship of the Ring) who set off to destroy a very powerful ring that ended up in the hands of young hobbit, Frodo (Elijah Wood). As they stroll through the forests and other dangerous mountains, he is stalked and chased by ghouls and monsters and evil beings that want to kill him -- or, at least, do whatever they can to collect the ring from him. For the ring, you see, has an evil master, whose spirit still exists and still longs to have his ring back -- he lost it thousands of years ago in a war.
The Fellowship of the Ring was pretty interesting and captivating for the first half of the movie... the second half, however, lost power. This is a three hour movie -- and, heavens, there's actually an extended version that lasts four hours. I think some scenes in this three hour film are kinda unnecessary (for instance, when Frodo meets Galadriel in Lothlorien) and there are bunches of moments near the end where I was like, What's happening? I'm ready for this to end now. When it did end, I was like, eh. There's not much going on here. I also think many of the characters aren't really that fleshed out. People sort of move about like action figures.
But there's resonance and deep emotion, here. Profound wisdom and life lessons. I don't really know what else to say except that I look forward to watching The Two Towers and The Return of the King and finally being able to say, "I have seen The Lord of the Rings movies. Yes."
Nine hours for the whole thing, if you don't do the extended cuts. Six more hours to go. That's like watching six one hour TV shows. Doable. That's what I keep telling myself... pretend it's a miniseries... pretend it's a miniseries. You can get through this. You can. You must. You will.