Review:Fellowship of the Ring

One of the best perks about my job is the excuse to skip out and catch the first showing of Lord of the Rings at the local theater. I did just that, and if you hit the magic link below you can read my comments on the film. I'm going to keep it short, and spoiler free. In a word? Wow.

Everyone has expectations about this movie. I imagine most of you have read the books. You all have ideas about what a Balrog looks like. What Gandalf is like. And yes, hell, even what the ring should look like. And you simply can't expect a movie to meet everyones ideas... but this thing came just as close as I could have hoped.

In short, there aren't many great movies that come out any more... but this is one of them. Everyone seems nearly perfectly cast. The special effects are nothing short of brilliant. The sets from the Shire on out look so wonderful and believable that you just wanna move in... until the Ring Wraiths show up and make everything all miserable.

Elijah Woods pulls off Frodo quite well. Yeah maybe he fell down one to many times, but the angst is believable. And Gandalf? His desire for the ring is intense and his actions are truly heroic.

I can't imagine a film adaptation of perhaps the best book ever written being done better. The first 45 minutes are a bit slow going, but once the Fellowship starts coming together I just didn't want to blink.

I could find things to nitpick about: some scenes the audio mix wasn't quite right, but that could partially have been the mediocre sound system in the theater: dialog was a bit muffled under the music. Some of the effects were noticably CG, but those were rare. Quite frankly nobody has done CG monsters as convincingly in a film to date. There was a handful of shots that looked faked, and all the rest seemed as perfect as could be.

God damn. The hype is warranted. The wait was worth it. But 12 months for the next one? At least I have my copy of FFX to keep me occupied during maybe 40 hours of the next 8,760 or so I have to wait. But who's counting?

Comments

My Theater Experience

[Shaheen]

My suitemates and I went to the midnight showing of Lord of the Rings yesterday at a local theater. I was totally impressed by the movie's accuracy. The Gates of Gondor were exactly as I had imagined them when reading the book. Wow.

However, two things made my experience not the best it could have been:

1. I half expected Elrond to say "Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson"

2. The audio in our showing became out of synch with the movie during the battle at the Gates of Gondor. I can't believe that I had to sit through the death of Boromir with the audio lagging by 5 seconds!

Re:A chance to pass the book on

[ellem]

It was revived in the 70s and you have Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to thank for that.

...
'Cos in the Darkest Depts of Modor
I met a girl so fair
But Gollum and the evil one
crept up and slipped away with her, her, her yeah
...
...
Misty Mountain Hop
...
etc...

Re:Best Book Ever Written!?!

[cybrpnk]

Here's some alternative choices for Best Sci-Fi book ever written; add your vote!

Re:Saw it last night too

[TheHaas]

Dear Lord -- what a troll . . .

Re:Anybody else?

[rho]

I'm not sick of it, but I'm beginning to wonder about his job. Does he work anymore? He has enough time to play FF, watch anime like a fiend, and go see every slightly nerdy movie as it comes out.

I'm no workaholic, but I barely have time to play a quick game on the occasional Saturday morning between writing code, fixing websites, making clients happy, keeping the house in shape and spending time with my wife.

Does Malda even write code anymore?

Re:My FOTR Review

[ethereal]

I think you're just going to have to get used to the fact that some guys know how to treat a lady right, yeah, even for 90 minutes at a stretch :) Although at age 15, that's a little hard to believe...

jesu

[Technosteve!]

who makes these lameness filters? i can't post a rant about how franatical you tolkien fans are about. i bet this post gets fitered. if it does i have a tale about my belly button a tale of power wisdom and ultimate fungul power! my navel is infected it has funny smells, ack bad smells and feels really bad, i hope the doctor doesn't say i got a pixie in my navel.

the end

the lameness contiunes.

Re:My FOTR Review

[ethereal]

Crap, I think I'm on the wrong side of that equation, then :)

Re:My FOTR Review

[Datafage]

Yeah, especially age 15 for what seems to be the first time...