Gandalf and Frodo steal the show (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD))

Member Name: annette_tr9

Product:	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD)
Date:	03/10/02 (63 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: one of the best films of the year

Disadvantages: have to wait to see the next one

I have to admit, I didn’t go to see this at the cinema, yes, I know it was one of the ‘to see’ films of the year but it’s three hours long! Our local cinema’s seats are the most uncomfortable you have ever seen so after three hours I doubt you could walk!!

Waiting for the DVD was the best move I think! I could relax and enjoy it, you also need to concentrate on the story so watching it on my own without any distractions (people munching popcorn and opening drinks) was a better idea.

The book of Lord of the rings is split into three parts, this film is just the first part of the book, The Fellowship of the Ring.

In short (which is difficult), here is the general storyline:

After Bilbo Baggins leaves Bag End he leaves his magic ring in the care of Frodo. This ring must be destroyed and Frodo finds himself on a quest through middle earth to destroy it by throwing it into the Cracks of Doom. Along the way Frodo picks up lots of people to help him on his journey, Gandalf, Legolas, Gimloi, Aragorn, Boromir, plus his three Hobbit friends, Sam, Pippin and Merry.

This visual effects in this film are brilliant as are all of the sets. You could turn the volume off and still be amazed with the film. The characters are all perfectly cast. Ian McKellen as Gandalf steals the show though. At first I was a bit disappointed with Gandalf, when I read the book I expected him to be all lovely and fluffy. The Gandalf in the film can be quite frightening but you get used to him and by the end of the film you will love him! Elijah Wood as Frodo is also excellent. He looks really young and little in the film. When he is standing next to Gandalf the makers have made him only half his height. This is carried on all the way through the film. We get a small appearance by Liv Tyler as Arwen.

The make-up department must have had a field day having to make people up as elves, hobbits, dwarfs etc
etc. The costume department must have had fun as well. All characters looked great, no body looked out of place at all. I expect they took a long time getting ready every time before filming though!

The soundtrack isn’t anything that you will know, it’s not the sort of thing that you are going to have blasting out in your car on the way to work. Mostly it’s classical type music put in the film to add atmosphere, which it does very well.

If you can, make sure you watch this film to it’s full potential on a Dolby 5.1 sound system. The sound is amazing, one of the best I have heard this year so far! One plus point of going to the cinema I suppose, good sound!

One thing I would recommend before seeing this film is that you read The Hobbit which is about a quarter of the length of Lord of the Rings. You will get to know characters like Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf and have some sort of idea what is happening in Lord of the Rings when the film is starting. If you haven’t read the book of Lord of the Rings the story can be quite hard to follow. There’s so much happening in every scene it’s hard to take it all in. You will probably enjoy the film more the second or third time around. You definitely need to watch it more than once because there will be things you miss the first time around.

Because The Lord of the Rings is in three parts, this film does end in a funny place. You will feel annoyed because it ends in the middle of a story, not long to wait until the next part now though!

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