The Original Lord of the Rings, still good (The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD))

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Product:	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (DVD)
Date:	24/05/04 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Special effects, story, Great rendition of book

Disadvantages: Well almost 3 hrs

If i were to write a couple of words describing peter jackson's portrayal of j.r.r. epic novel it would be that the movie is "glorious, spectacular, innovative, and on the edge of your seat excitement!!!"

The camera directing, special effects and engrossing cinematography of lord of rings
is beyond words.

The film had been in development for over 5 yrs so jackson carefully and effortlessly put his best effort for the film.

The basic premise of lord of rings centers on a hobbit named frodo baggins (elijah wood ) who has the task of destroying the rings that has caused destruction across middle earth, and the dangerous and fascinating journey he and his companions : gandalf the grey (ian mckellen), strider/aragorn (viggo mortensen) legolas greenleaf (orlando bloom )and others undertake to destroy the ring.

Peter jackson's film of tolkien's (j.r.r) novel starts of by telling us of the numerous rings across middle earth that are held by dwarves, elves and other creatures.

However, there is one ring though, that no one knows about that is in the hands of lord sauron, an evil beast, that will bring destruction to middle earth.

Sauron organizes an unholy army composed of demons, however, he is met by the army of king thoden and prince isildur's (harry sinclair (ii)) army.

Everyone is nearly wiped but in spectacular fashion, isildur chops sauron evil claw, thus removing the ring from him.
However,one of the messages of the lord of rings is that the ring corrupts everyone who wears it. the ring is a symbol of power, greed and evil.

Thus prince isildur comes under the ring's evil power until the rings kills him and falls unto another unfortunate soul. the next person to get the ring is gollum, a hideous ugly thing. after gollum, the rings falls to bilbo baggins (ian holm-(from the movie "the fifth element"),
a hobbit.

Baggins is celebrating his 111 plus birthday, however, during the celebrating, Gandalf, discovers Bilbo is hiding the ring and orders him to hand it over. Before this happens, we are treated to truly magical effects during the celebration. During one scene, Gandalf (McKellan) is smoking a pipe, however, the smoke turns into a really cool ship floating in air!!! Wow. Jackson's is already starting his special effects in grand fashion.


Gandalf then gives the ring to Frodo Baggins (Wood). Frodo is not your typical hero, however, his pure heart and bravery will be shown during the course of his journey. which is another of Tolkein's message.

It doesn't matter how you look in the outside, it's the inside that counts, and Frodo has a heart and character bigger than life, that echoes bravery, intelligence, and strength. It's no wonder audiences seem to love the Hobbits, they are small in size yes but big on heart, as the old cliche goes "It's not the size of the man, but the size of fight in the man".

Frodo and his hobbit friends Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee (Sean Astin) then leave the village of the Shire, in hopes of finding help of destroying the ring.
Aragon (Mortenson) is the strider, ranger who saves Frodo and his friends. from when he is pursued from ring raiders at a local inn. A great line by Aragon to Frodo is: "Are you frightened", Frodo responds "Yes", then Aragon responds "Not nearly frightened enough!" All the actors in the movie Elijah Woods, Ian Mckellan( Gods and Monsters, XMEN) Liv Tyler (who plays Arwen the Elf) all give their best performances. In fact, no matter what good or bad movies these actors have done, this movie will be the best movie they have ever been in.

Frodo, Aragon and Sam go to reiverdale house of Elrod where the Elves are
and meet Arwen Undómiel (the lovely Liv Tyler) who has magical powers.

In one scene, as she as taking Frodo on h
er horse to safety, a group of demonic ring raiders come after. As they approach a river Arwen says "If you want him come claim him", as the raiders come close using her powers ,Arwen unleashes a tidal wave upon the unlucky foes!!!

It's really a great combination of special effects, and good scripting and directing. Jackson delivers one memorable image after another
using the Tolkein novel.

The elves of Elrod decide on having a council meeting to address what to do about the ring. At first, everyone has difference of opinions as to who should keep. Then it is revealed that ring can only be destroyed at the mountain of doom.

However, no one including the elves, dwarves or strider volunteer to go to Morod to destroy it. Then Frodo whose heart and courage surpasses his height, volunteers to go to the mountain.

Inspired by Frodo , Aragon, Sam Gamgee,Gimli the Dwarf (John Rhys-Davies) , Legolas , and rest of Frodo's hobbit friends, decide to join Frodo and thus the Fellowship of the Ring is formed!!!!!

This is not the first movie that has been put on the screen by followers of JRR. Tolkien, however, it is by the far the best!!! "The Hobbit" one of Tolkein other works, was made into animated film in the 70's (1978) by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr-Two geniuses who are legends in animated cartoons for kids of all ages. Unfortunately, "The Hobbit" was geared for kids and so much of the intensity and story of the animated film was cut off from the film, along with characters from the novel.

The effects for Lord Of Rings were done by WETA Ltd, The New Zealand effects company Jackson founded 14 yrs ago (the investment paid of).

Jackson of course made the remaining 2 sequels to Lord Of Rings (The Lord of Rings: The Two Towers, and The
Lord of Rings: The Return of King) and they were both as
excellent as the first one, althought I personally think the first has an edge that the other two seem to lack as the movie nears it's end. (I liked Return of the King but felt it was very
predictable to the end).

Of course I haven't even covered the DVD version of the film with nearl an hour of extra footage, but needless to say the "Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring" is one of the best movies of Jackson's career and one of the best fantasy movies I've seen in quite a while.

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