Lord of the Rings:The Fellowship of the Ring

December 11, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 178 min Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition

Does more of a good thing make it better? In this case, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’! The newly released extended edition adds about 30 minutes of extra footage that takes care of my primary complaint regarding the theatrical version by filling in the gaps between the battles and chases. Many of the details that I wanted to see - the wood elves leaving middle earth, the inner turmoil of Aragorn, the full extent of Galadriel’s gifts to the ringbearer and the rest of the fellowship - were all there. In addition, a few moments were added into the journey to more fully give the viewer a sense of how long and arduous everything was. A brief scene of Aragorn looking off at a distant forest, for instance, gives notice that the walk from the mines of Moria to Lorien wasn’t just a afternoon’s trot as might have been implied by the theatrical version.

Also of note are the “appendices” on disks 3 and 4. Instead of the largely fluff extras found in the August DVD release, here you have an insane amount of historic material. Hours of interviews, storyboards, animatics, galleries, costume design, filming, visual effects, miniatures, and much, much more are packed into this edition. If you chose to wait for this release instead of buying the shorter version, then you have chosen…wisely.

Movies For Guys Original Theatrical Review

Holy moly, Peter Jackson actually pulled it off! Having read the Lord of the Rings trilogy of books multiple times in my younger years, I was VERY skeptical that any translation of the material to the big screen could remain in any way faithful to the original material. One need only look as far as Starship Troopers to see what happens to sci-fi/fantasy classics that make it to the theaters.

Lord of the Rings:The Fellowship of the Ring

Even still, due to the reverence I had for Tolkien’s work, I found myself walking in with high expectations. I’m glad to say that I was completely blown away by the experience. So much so, in fact, that I plan to head back out to the theater after writing this and watch it again immediately!

I hope that, if you’re reading this, you already know how the story goes but, just in case you don’t, here’s as brief a synopsis as I can come up with: Sauron, the ultimate evil overlord, attempts to take over the world but fails when, during a huge battle, his finger (upon which “The One Ring” sits) gets chopped off and he’s vaquished to never-never land. The ring, which holds ultimate power over men, elves, and everyone else, is then lost for nearly 3,000 years. Enter a young Hobbit(a race of small people with hairy feet) who inherits the ring. A powerful but kindly old wizard finds out about the true nature of the ring and determines that it must be destroyed before Sauron can reclaim it and resume taking over the world. The Hobbit sets out to do just that all the while accumulating more and more companions.

If that synopsis doesn’t exactly make you want to run out and see the movie, that’s because there’s no way I could do justice to the story with so few words. Just take my word for it, however, and go see it.

If you have read the Lord of the Rings, then you’ll be happy to know that LotR:FotR adheres to the the first book as well as could be expected and yet still be understandable and still have a nice flow to it. There are a few (well publicized) differences but, in my opinion, they don’t affect the story in any major way and are not worth all the publicity they are getting.

The casting is superb! Ian McKellen becomes the Gandalf that I always imagined while reading the books. Likewise, Elijah Wood is a perfect choice for Frodo. The others are all marvelous, in fact. The settings are spectacular and complimented with some stunning camera work. Thankfully, the CGI is not *too* overpowering and lends just the right amount of grandure and awe-inspiring beauty to the landscapes and the elven cities. And, of course, the special effects were dead-on. They further the story instead becoming the story.

If I had to find any flaws with the movie, it would be the old cliche “too much of a good thing”. By maintaining the original story line, the movie does at times seem to stretch on a bit too long. I almost wish we were getting four 2+hour movies instead of three 3-hour marathons. Sacrilege? Maybe, but I am more of a movie goer than a reader. In any case, this little issue isn’t quite enough to bring it down a star on the ratings scale so it gets the full 5 stars from me.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 5 Stars, Action, DVD, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, PG-13, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen