The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

For the final week of “Halloween Month,” I wanted to close out by reviewing one of my favorite franchises of all time: The Lord of the Rings. That’s right, the famous J.R.R. Tolkien books that were made into feature films directed by the great Peter Jackson. This series has been praised by every Tolkien fan that these movies are just amazing. Although not as good as the books (even though I never read them, but listened to the audio books after I saw the movies), they still brought the pages to life in the movies. Enough talk, let's start with "The Fellowship of the Ring," released in 2001.

When J.R.R. Tolkien wrote these books, there was a war going on, hence the reason why it is so dark. When you see the piles of bodies or all the fights, blood flying everywhere, people planning on what to do, the great speeches before the fights, you can see where Tolkien got his source material from.

First off, let’s talk about the casting in these movies, because Peter Jackson casted the right people who looked the part, and even acted them out pitch perfect. I couldn't imagine any other actors playing these roles any better. First off, Elijah Wood, who started his film career out as a child, is playing the protagonist, Frodo Baggins. He plays Frodo great as a kind, selfless, innocent, very vulnerable and lonely person. In the role of Frodo’s best friend, Samwise Gamgee, we have the great Sean Astin, who plays Sam as a loyal, tough, hardworking yet also vulnerable companion. Even though Frodo may have been looked at as very weak compared to the books, Sam was always by his side to pick his spirits up, which is what I loved. Now we have this film’s version of Rosencratz and Guildenstern from the best play by William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck and Peregrin “Pippin” Took. Boy, are these two just enjoyable to see when they are on screen. They feel like the great Bud Abbot and Lou Costello because of how much they poke fun at one another. Thank goodness for the casting of German actor Dominic Monaghan and Scottish actor Billy Boyd. I couldn’t have imagined any other actor playing these parts. I was reminded of Fred and George Weasley from the “Harry Potter” series, which they were pretty much similar to. They were strong, loyal, obedient, courageous, yet playful, but also appreciative and smart. The gay but amazing British actor, Ian McKellen played Gandalf the Grey Wizard as a warm, tough, spiritual, courageous yet cranky guardian. He loved Hobbits since he was around them for so long, but he was just amazing in this role. Viggo Mortensen played Aragorn aka Strider as a self-doubting but disciplined, courageous, romantic, euphoric and a natural born leader even when he doesn’t see it himself. Sean Bean plays the role of Boromir, a very mercurial character who was also tempted and angry, yet courageous, helpful, and cynical. Now we come to the most exciting of all the characters, Legolas the Elf, played by Orlando Bloom. What an amazing character. He was joyful, fun to watch, strong, dependent, could handle a fight and really was a supportive and friendly companion to the fellowship. Next is probably the funniest of all the characters, Gimli the Dwarf, played by John Rhys-Davies. Talk about a comic relief. This guy really knew how to crack a joke and fit in a funny line or one-liner whenever the time was right. Besides being hilarious, he was kind, noble, strong, courageous, and dependent and really was loyal to his fellow friends.

As great as the main characters were, the side characters were just as great. Ian Holm plays Frodo’s uncle, Bilbo Baggins, a character that you really suspect is up to something, and that can be no good. However, when he is not tempted by the one ring, he is a responsible uncle to Frodo and really knows how to take care of him, plus is very friendly. Lord Elrond of the Elves is played by Hugo Weaving, who plays him as a frustrated, depressed, yet supportive, and protective ruler of the Elves of Rivendell. Arwen is played by the very pretty Liv Tyler, who plays a very strong love interest who makes a really huge decision to choose a mortal life so that she can be with the one she loves. Cate Blanchett plays Lady Galadriel, a very strong support for the protagonists. She is helpful, smart, an advisor and has a really good outline of what she wants them to do in order to achieve their tasks.

Now the villains are just pitch perfect. We have Sala Baker playing the main villain, Sauron, but the voice is done by Alan Howard, who also did the voice of the One Ring. Boy are there voices so cunning, bone-chilling and just downright creepy. The Great Eye always watching is something you don’t want to see whenever you’re traveling. The other villain, Saurman the White, is played by the late Christopher Lee. This is a villain that I couldn’t see anyone else playing, simply because the voice is just so cool. You could compare Sauron and Saurman to Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader from “Star Wars.” These are simply two of the greatest villains I have ever seen on screen. They also have an entire army of Nazgul aka Ringwraiths, Black Riders or as The Nine, Orks, and all sorts of villainous creatures that whenever you see them on screen, they look so scary.

This is a film trilogy that was consistently great and just got better with each film. This, like “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,” is a perfect beginning for the series. It has a very complex back-story of how the “one ring” was created, and men and elves fought together to defeat Sauron, and the ring was lost. For those who don’t know, three rings were given to the Elves, seven to the Dwarves and nine to great kings that turned into the Nazgul, but one was made by Sauron in the fires of Mount Doom. Starting to get scared yet?

The film can be dark, exciting, but also funny. It has really deep themes, friendship, temptation, destiny, men`s morality, sacrifice, idealism, etc.

Harry Sinclair is in the beginning playing Isildur, the man who cut Sauron's hand off, killed him, and took the ring. Only downside is that he didn't live very long after that before the ring came off of his finger when he hid underwater and ended up dying with arrows in his back.

The film has great set design, location shooting, CGI that mostly still holds up, makeup, puppets, miniatures, and it looks great. Howard Shore gives a great score, and the action is awesome. When you look at this film, the locations are just awesome. Since this film was shot in New Zealand, the film makes you want to visit the country and see where they shot the movie. With the CGI, it’s hard to tell what is, since there are people in costumes, the puppetry and animatronics in this film look just great. It was nice to see a film that still decided to use puppets and animatronics and didn’t completely rely on CGI, but only when they seemed it was necessary. The fight choreography was just well done. The sword fight, bows and arrows, axes, magic, everything. Peter Jackson deserves as many awards that he must have won because of giving us such an amazing series, so hats off to him.

I can imagine why Nostalgia Critic would say the part where they could have saved Gandalf on the Cave of Mount Moria. People might have said that they could have gotten shot by the Orcs when going to save them, but they had dodged all of the shots when they were escaping, and they weren't that far off from Gandalf hanging from the ledge. Oh well, what can you do.

Also, the lines in this movie are just some of the most quotable lines of all time. Not only did Peter Jackson write this, but he also had the collaborative effort of Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. With these three putting their heads together to give us some of the best lines in movie history is just the most achieving task that any person who makes movies would know.

Overall this is a fantastic film. It gets a 10 and is highly recommended. Go out and watch the movie because I cannot do this film justice just by talking about it. You simply have to go out and see it for yourself to be blown away by it. This is the only film that I got some input from reviewreviewer1 about, so the others I will be playing it solo.

Check in tomorrow when I look at the second in the “Lord of the Rings Trilogy.”