Yar, you be here: The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring > Customer Reviews

The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 3 Reviews)

Just as good as the books. FULL SKULL BABY!

"One Ring to rule them All;" not to mention the world and the box office. The first installment of the epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy does not fail to please and it even throws in something extra. Now, the first thing that you notice is the sets: wow. The year it took to set them all up in pre-production paid off. You have never seen locations like the Mount Doom, Hobbiton, Rivendell, Moria, Lothlorien or Argonath. Next, the cast shines through with heartfelt, moving performances. The actors include Ian MacKellan (Gandalf), Christopher Lee (Saruman), Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn), Elijah Wood (Frodo) Sean Bean (Boromir) and Sean Astin (Sam).

The plot is fairly simple: Frodo is a hobbit who inherits a powerful Ring made thousands of years ago by the dark lord Sauron, and if Sauron gets it back, he will rule Middle-Earth. Frodo, with the help of his companions Merry, Pippin, Sam, Gandalf, and Aragorn to name a few, go on a perilous flight to Sauron's stronghold in Mordor where the Ring can be destroyed. But all the while, Saruman is plotting to take the Ring for himself.

Director Peter Jackson, along with thousands of extras, production assistants, designers, writers and actors have brought the "Lord of the Rings" in all its splendor, emotion and granduer to the screen. This movie has set a new bar for fantasy movies, but will probably be reset by the next two movies. I highly recommend this movie to anyone. Lovers of Tolkein books or not.

A triumph for Tolkein geeks (and the rest of us too) FULL SKULL BABY!
Friends of mine mock me because I've seen this five times. It's okay, they don't even know I've read book the twice that many.

Like other geeks I had high expectations for this movie and I wasn't disappointed. First, it's well-written. The writers keep Tolkein's epic language and manage to make it accessible. Good mix of comedy, drama, tragedy. Second, it's beautiful in every detail, best art direction and cinematography since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Third, it's HUGE. There's a lot happening and usually two different parts of the plot are being developed at once. The action scenes always relate to the meaning of the story so there's stuff to think about while you watch one hair-raising set piece after another. Fourth, unlike the recent Star Wars disaster, it's a movie where the actors actually ACT. Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen give the best performances and keep the movie grounded in a spiritual struggle, even when the FX threaten to take over the movie. Other characters are less well-developed but the stage is set for their development in the second & third films. Anyway, even the more shallow characters here compare favorably with the original Star Wars flicks.

Bottom line: a triumph for fantasy geeks everywhere, not to mention a movie that will make the rest of you wonder why you thought Gladiator was all that.

An astonishing masterpiece. FULL SKULL BABY!
Considered both as fantasy adventure and as an adaptation of a beloved literary classic, Peter Jackson's film of "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" sets new standards for cinematic excellence. Everything about this film feels exactly right, from the casting to the screenplay to the special effects. The last are amazing, putting to shame anything George Lucas has come up with, and yet they always serve to advance the story; unlike Lucas, there's never any hint that Jackson is merely playing with his toys. Jackson shows great respect for Tolkien's text, but not slavish devotion. Certain characters--such as the lovable Tom Bombadil and Frodo's poisonous Aunt Lobelia--are missing, and Tolkien would be chagrined to find that the little poems and songs he loved to write are nowhere quoted. But if Jackson gives short shrift to Tolkien's whimsy, he more than makes up for that by giving us Tolkien's intensity, pathos and moral vision absolutely undiluted. Above all, Jackson never forgets that Tolkien's chief emphasis was always on the characters he created. Jackson casts wonderful actors to play those characters and--again unlike Lucas--he actually allows them to give performances. How wonderful to find the great Sir Ian McKellen, a uniquely commanding and charismatic actor, as Gandalf, or the charming and touching Elijah Wood as Frodo. You can go straight down the list--Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn, Sean Astin as Sam, Ian Holm as Bilbo, Cate Blanchett as Galadriel--and find nothing but perfection. This is one of the very few big-budget blockbusters that unqualifiedly deserves its success, and all we can do now is look forward with excitement to the release of "The Two Towers" in 2002 and "The Return of the King" in 2003. Like the books they came from, these three fillms will be cherished by future generations.