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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 (82 - 84 of 102 Reviews)

Lotr:fotr delivers it all! A MUST SEE!!!
let me just say that I've seen Lord of the rings 13 times, I've read the books 2 times and I'm madly in love with Elijah Wood.
First of all, Lord of the rings is awesome! You smile when you see the cozy Shire. You cry when Gandalf falls. Your teeth chatter whenever orcs appear.
The acting is marvelous! Elijah Wood is perfect as Frodo. His fear and love seem so real. And, might I add, he makes huge hairy feet beautiful. Ian Mckellan Is profound as Gandalf. He is passionate about his role and acts astonishingly. Sean Astin is great as Samwise Gamgee and Billy Boyd is halarious as Peregrin Took.
The music is enchanting! I cry whenever I hear "in dreams" by Edward Ross. Enya has a wonderful voice and Howard Shore is a great composer.
Middle-Earth is bewitching. You feel that you can actually travel to the fair valley of Rivendell, the hidden forest of Lothlorien, the fearsome gates of Moria.
The characters are stunning. The hobbits are so kind and care-worn.The elves graceful. The wizards powerful. I agree that Galadriel should have been a little more kind. Tom Bambodil wasn't such a big loss.
You have got to see Lord of the rings: Fellowship of the ring. It's absolutely breath-taking. You won't regret it. 13 times isn't enough and yet, even after a hundred times you'll still be craving for more. Peter Jackson has truly outdone himself this time.

Curious re-edit not as good as the theatrical release
Buy this edition for the documentaries, comentaries, and cool LoTR paraphenalia, but if you are a fan of excellent _cinema_ you might like to consider renting before buying.

Why?

This "special edition" is NOT the wonderful theatrical release PLUS additional scenes that simply add to your enjoyment, but is instead a curious re-edit of the movie. In my opinion, the many changes from the original version sacrifice pace, focus, and narrative flow for the dubious benefits of showing modified and/or extended scenes that: (1) restore lines of Tolkein's dialogue/exposition,(2)restore stunt work that is silly (e.g. Aragorn and Boromir pulling the Cave Troll's chain; Merry and Pippin killing Uruk Hai by throwing stones [hobbits + uruk hai = ewoks + stormtroopers???]). Lines are inexplicably taken from one character and given to another, diminishing several great performances in the process, but without adding much. The new scenes frequently don't quite match the look of the original footage, which I found jarring. Worse, the long awaited Lothlorien gift giving scene is merely OK, and includes material that departs from the books (e.g. Sam gets rope as his gift - even if the Battle of the Shire has been cut from the movie trilogy, why not still have Galadriel give Sam a gift for his garden in hope of better days?; Aragorn does not receive the golden scabbard for Narsil, as that sword is still broken back in Rivendell in this movie, but if he doesn't have a scabbard from Lorien the scene at the door to Theoden's Hall is badly damaged, and for no good reason!). Worst of all, the much advertised additional music jumps in all over the place, changing the rhythms of the scenes in a way that shows just how fantastic were the original editing and scoring.

Bottom line: I loved the theatrical release, and am sadly disappointed by this "special edition". I will watch this edition for the commentaries, and will enjoy the documentaries and fine WETA bookends, but I will go back to the theatrical release DVD whenever I want to enjoy a masterpiece of cinema.

The Road Goes Ever On...
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a fine movie. Too bad it didn't win best picture. It could have kicked off an Oscars run similar to The Godfather trilogy.

Alas...

Academy voters have always been blind. For instance:

Can somebody please tell me why Jackson was not the best director? His vision of was the one thing that rose above the bland mire that was last year's Oscar crop. The only other decent movie released during Oscar season was The Shipping News (which Oscar completely neglected).

Can someone please show me an Actor who gave more to his movie than Ian McKellan? His Gandalf is pure genius. Who else could have made such a character believable, much less likable?

Where oh where has Viggo Mortensen's supporting actor Oscar gone?

These questions left aside, there are flaws in the book's translation to the screen. I still can't see what is gained by having Liv Tyler rescue Frodo. Poor Glorfindel.

The beginning of the movie, while being a wonderful piece of cinematic exposition, horribly compresses some things. Again--poor Tom Bombadil.

Finally, I understand this is to be in the "director's cut" of the 4 disc DVD, but why on earth did they not put Gimli's falling in love with Galadriel in the publicly released version? --Kind of important for characterization.

However, none of these flaws should really stop someone from watching this great movie. There are too many things that are dealt with with excellence:

-The Shire. Jackson has captured the beauty and wonder of the Shire and its fascinating Hobbits.

-Weathertop. Though this too gets condensed (and we lose Aragorn's all important tale), Jackson has captured the fight on Weathertop just as I had imagined it.

-Moria and the fight on the bridge. Moria is wonderfully imagined. Gandalf's talk with Frodo is another great piece of exposition. The flight across the bridge and Gandalf's stand against the Balrog are scary as can be.

-Kate Blanchett is perfect as Galadriel.

-The two scenes at the end, between Boromir and Aragorn, and Sam and Frodo, are as moving as anything that's been on the screen in the past twenty years. They leave the viewer waiting expectantly for the next film.

Which is where I am.

In the meantime, I give The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings my highest recommendation.

This two disc DVD version has a lot of cool extras, but I'd recommend springing for the four disc version which is going to have a whole lot more.

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