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The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring (Platinum Series Special Extended Edition Collector's Gift Set) Customer Reviews (43 - 45 of 102 Reviews)

Jackson Even Improves on a Great Story. Phenomenal
`Fellowship of the Ring' is the first of the three movies making up the cinema version of the novel, `Lord of the Rings' by philologist J. R. R. Tolkien. This is one of the most influential popular novels of the 20th century. Other bases of big motion pictures such as `Ben-Hur' and `Gone With the Wind' can't hold a candle to it as it had an influence far beyond its role as the basis for a movie script. For starters, `Lord of the Rings' has had a large and growing readership from its original publication in the mid 1950s to the present, while I suspect practically no one reads Lew Wallace's `Ben-Hur' any more and few people have recently read Margaret Mitchell's `Gone With the Wind'.

It is almost impossible to speak of any one of the three volumes or movies by itself. They do not in the usual sense of the word form a trilogy of three independent novels related by common characters, location, and history. `The Lord of the Rings' is a single novel which was serialized in three volumes published over two and a half years in the mid 1950's. One virtue we did get from the division into three titles by Tolkien is that Peter Jackson had a valid basis on which to split a single story into three long movies totaling close to 10 hours of viewing time. There is simply no way the whole story could be squeezed into three hours. Ralph Bakshi's attempt to do it in the early 1970's was a total failure.

Peter Jackson can thank his lucky stars that so many people in his audience were familiar with the novel. Otherwise the cliffhanger ending to `The Fellowship of the Ring' could have easily killed any interest in the movie rather than, as it did, enhance expectations for the second and third installments. I can still remember overhearing a fellow audience member muttering that he wanted his money back upon leaving the theatre after seeing Frodo and Sam paddle off across the Anduin, Merry and Pippin being rushed off to Orthanc, and Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas dispairing over the collapse of the Fellowship.

This is not to say that `The Fellowship of the Ring' is not without its rewards. With all of the truly demoniac scenes in the second and third movies, not to mention Gandalf's heroic stand against the Balrog in the Mines of Moria, I really find the single scariest moment in the whole movie to be the one I read on a dark Saturday night alone in our house while the dark riders on their black horses were chasing Frodo seated on a white horse in front of the Elven warrior Glorfindel as he races towards the river guarding the approaches to Rivendell. It is no surprise that this scene is one of the most powerful in Jackson's movie. Jackson even improves on the scene by replacing the mighty warrior, Glorfindel with the very slender, delicate looking Arwen, who would seem to not have the snowball's chance in hell, elven magic or no elven magic, standing against the nine black riders. For me, Jackson has ably captured virtually every scene he touched by matching or improving on my imagination. He does a similarly excellent job with enhancing the most important event in the whole book, the confrontation with the Balrog and the apparent loss of Gandalf. And, as many have said before, the New Zealand scenery played a major role in helping to breath life into the words. Can anything have done so well in realizing the Misty Mountains?

While almost all the scenes in `The Two Towers' made it to the screen, important parts of both `The Return of the King' and `The Fellowship of the Ring' were understandably left behind when the film was done. Oddly, the single most interesting character of the volume, Tom Bombadil, was practically the only significant character left out of the movie. Bombadil is quite the `deux ex machina', as he rescues the four hobbits from their first two perils without being given much of an introduction, even by know-it-all Gandalf. Bombadil only crops up one afterward in the council of Elrond where it is said that if the magic ring is given to him, he will probably loose it and just as he was `the first', he will be the last to disappear under the shadow cast by ubervillain Sauron. In all my readings of Tolkien, Bombadil has always been the most elusive and interesting character, even more so than the wizards, as the wizards, the elves, and every other creature in Middle Earth (with the possible exception of the Ents) is subject to the evil of the ring. This suggests that all the peoples of Middle Earth except Bombadil and the Ents are immigrants from somewhere else. `The Silmarillion' tells in great detail how the elves came to Middle Earth, and it is clear that the wizards and the men of Gondor and Arnor came from places beyond Middle Earth, but not Bombadil. What's more, Bombadil seems to have power over the ring, as he seems to make it disappear before the hobbits' eyes. Bombadil and his soul mate Goldberry seem to be great archetypes for the hippie counterculture of the 1960s. In fact, of all the characters in `Lord of the Rings', the contrast between Bombadil and Gandalf are two of the most interesting archetypes relevant to modern humans. I certainly have less trouble identifying with these two than with the diminutive, hairy-toed hobbits.

While the driving energy of the story comes from the need to overthrow the great evil Sauron, the greatest interest comes from battles of conscience on a much more `human' scale, as it occurs in Boromir, Gollum, Faramir, Theoden, and Frodo Baggins. The most important instance in this film is the struggle of Boromir between his sworn allegiance to the quest of the fellowship versus his fealty to his father, Denethor, steward of Gondor.


The greatest movire I have ever seen from an extreme critic
There's something about this that just takes you and punches you straight in the stomach. Peter Jackson took what was already extremely earthy and honest book material and then supercharged it into this fantasy-visual epic. Some minor touchups and tweaks here and there and you have a tight true to fandom, fresh, morally relevant masterpiece. I popped this sucker in my PC, within my dark lonely apartment and immediately felt like I was amongst good friends on a grand Kick-Ass adventure. Real mellow too.
Good job! Please make more films like this Hollywood.
Staying true to the original concept roots while regarding the film version really wins every time.
I only saw the cut version and need to see the extended as i thought the stories were too complicated in only 3 hours.
Now off to the other two! Whoohoo!

Excellent Film, Captures the Spirit of Tolkien perfectly
When the The Fellowship of the Ring came out in theaters, I greeted its' arrival with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. I love the books and I was hoping that the films would not underachieve and do an injustice to Tolkien's vision as the earlier animated film had done. When the Galadrial narration began, I knew that there was nothing to worry about. The opening battle sequences were phenominal, but it was something else that convinced me that these movies were something special. Later in the opening as Gandalf and Frodo rode into the Shire and the hobbitt children accosted them wanting fireworks, the images on the screen brought tears to my eyes. Later as the Black Riders attack Frodo, their screams were bone chilling and fear-inspiring. This was Tolkien realized perfectly. While some parts of the book have been omitted, overall the The Fellowship of the Ring is an excellent movie. Peter Jackson was excellent in his direction. What also stands out in this movie is the excellent performances by the cast. Ian McKellan's Gandalf was perfect, capturing the right mixture of compassion, wry humor and strength that the wizard needed. I found the performances of Elijah Wood and Sean Astin as Frodo and Sam to be the most compelling in this first film. Viggo Mortenson captures dead on the majesty of the exiled, hidden heir of Gondor. Orlando Bloom is fine as Legolas, John Rys-Davies is able to inject a perfect mixture of petulance and bravery in Gimli. Christopher Lee's Sauroman is the perfect evil foil for the Fellowship. Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd first begin to shine as Merry and Pippin and bring some humor to the film. Finally Sean Bean's Boromir is perfectly cast. He embodies the arrogance, courage, despair and strength of the son of Gondor. When he is killed giving up his life for his friends it is one of the most powerful moments in the film, on par with Gandalf's sacrifice against the Balrog. In a film that astounds with it's imagery and sound, whose story is legendary, it is the ability of Peter Jackson to capture the human themes of the story that make The Fellowship of the Ring and the Lord of the Rings trilogy such a remarkable series of films. The fact that a film as original and ground breaking as the The Fellowship of the Ring did not win Best picture and Best Director is proof of the idiocy of Hollywood.

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