An in depth look at Lord of the Rings, now that I've seen the movie several times and have had time to think about it and discuss it (may contain some spoilers in the next two movies, I wouldn't worry to much)
PostPosted:Fri Jan 18, 2002 4:53 pm
<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>After a month of Lord of the Rings constantly at the top of the charts, tapping the International market for 600 million dollars as it rockets towards the second place position (because we all know that 925 million is a very possible goal for it to beat, Titanics 1.85 billion is quite a long shot).
First of all, I will just say, this first third of the Lord of the Rings movie, in my opinion, is the best film ever to reach the big screen. Though I have no doubts that the second and third are better, as Peter Jackson explained, that those parts were much more easily adapted for the big screen. Saying this, I know that for more than 95% of the people who have seen the movie and read the book, this statement is possibly not true, the movie does NOT live up to the book. In the book, I remember as a child reading it, the Fellowship of the Ring took me about 7 months to complete, I'd read it, and then go back through the book and look things over, refer to the appendix, etc.. I grew attacjed to several scenes written into the book, The Old Forest and the Shire for starters, Moria, Rivendel, and Lothlorian were perhaps my favorite settings from that book. The scene where the Ringwraiths attacked Buck Hollow, where the Hobbits were staying, making their way through the Old Forest (not nessissarily the Tom Bombadil scene), the nights they spent in camp within Moria, etc... They were all cut short, or cut out of the movie. Now I know, it is impossible for a movie to be made that lives up to the book with my way of thinking, so we won't be concerned about that aspect.
Onto the best scenes of the movie, my personal favorites were of course, the Oppening battle Scene, which is undoubtedly the best battle scene I have ever seen in my life. Though I expect that to change in by the second movie, The Battle of Helms Deep is one contender, the Battle of Isengard of course.
Another scene, which was probably my favorite, the Chase scene with the Wraiths against Arwen and Frodo. I will admit, Arwen, or Liv Tyler did play an extrmely good Glorfindel. This Scene outranks the William Wallace Death Scene in Braveheart for my favorite scene in a movie currently.
Two more scenes that I believed were done INCREDIBLY well, the Flee from Moria, very great scene, the Balrog of course was Impressive, but I am talking about the aftermath of that battle, the way the music kicked in and the sound dulled, slowing down the motion of the film, as the Orcish arrows struck towards Aragorn, each one missing by a few feet.
The other scene which is a contender for best scene of the movie in my view, is the final Battle Scene, from the moment Aragorn tells Frodo to leave and onward "You know I would have gone with you until the end little one, into the very fires of Mordor" or something like that. Aragorn proving that he is indeed Psychotic, not even flinching when attacked by about 700 Orcs. Boromirs death, and Aragorn dismembering and decapitating the Orc Captain. I think most people would agree that this scene was the best, especially from the moment when the Orc Captain shot Boromir for the first time.
On the characters,
Character representations:
Boromir, you can't get much closer to him than that, he did the best job on his Character.
Next is Pippin, the comedic relief in the movie as he was in the book.
Aragorn after leaving Rivendel, before, I didn't think he did a great job hiding as Strider, Strider in the book I saw much more as a menacing character. I believe they could have done a better job during those earlier scenes.
Gandalf, Saruman, Gimli, and Legolas, didn't play the parts as I expected them too, but all the same, I believe they changed my mind on what those characters were indeed like in the actual book. They all were awesome in the battle scenes.
Frodo, though I believe Elijah Wood did an extremely good job in acting out the part, my only complaints are that he didn't seam as tough as the Frodo I picture from the book. I also believe that they focused entirely too much on him and not enough on Merry who I won't even mention.
Sam, He played the role very well, but he seamed a bit, I don't know, simple, or maybe dumb, compared to the Sam I pictured in the book.
The Scenery in the movie is jawdropping, when they showed the entire set of Hobbiton, all the mountains, and fields with the ancient ruins.... There is no movie that tops this, not even Braveheart did this well of a job, not even close. It took me until my third viewing to really appreciate this aspect of the movie, and that was really only because it was much talked about, otherwise, I might not have really taken notice until my 5th or 6th viewing. Though of course, during my first viewing, I was taken surprise by everything, and of course was blown away by all of it.
The pacing was amazing, much different than the book, the book definetly wasn't suspense scene after scene, but it did contain quite a bit. Mostly, it was description of everything they interacted with on their adventures, the scenary, the characters, objects etc... Some people found the book boring, as Tolkien explained in his Forward, and like Tolkien, I of course feel the same way about the books that they believe are great works of art. The Lord of the Rings is perhaps, the only book I will ever truly fall in love with, that is why I have read it as many times as I have seen the movie, 4 times. I am at the point where I have examined the book so thoroughly that all someone has to do is describe a scene or a quote and I will find the paragraph that the scene takes place in or the quote within 30 seconds.
All in all, I don't think that there will be a movie to rival this one at the Academy awards, especially seeing how this one cleaned house at the AFI awards. Febuary and the Nominations are coming quickly, we shall see what happens, hopfully it will still be in theatres at that time, because God knows I'll still be watching it!</div>
First of all, I will just say, this first third of the Lord of the Rings movie, in my opinion, is the best film ever to reach the big screen. Though I have no doubts that the second and third are better, as Peter Jackson explained, that those parts were much more easily adapted for the big screen. Saying this, I know that for more than 95% of the people who have seen the movie and read the book, this statement is possibly not true, the movie does NOT live up to the book. In the book, I remember as a child reading it, the Fellowship of the Ring took me about 7 months to complete, I'd read it, and then go back through the book and look things over, refer to the appendix, etc.. I grew attacjed to several scenes written into the book, The Old Forest and the Shire for starters, Moria, Rivendel, and Lothlorian were perhaps my favorite settings from that book. The scene where the Ringwraiths attacked Buck Hollow, where the Hobbits were staying, making their way through the Old Forest (not nessissarily the Tom Bombadil scene), the nights they spent in camp within Moria, etc... They were all cut short, or cut out of the movie. Now I know, it is impossible for a movie to be made that lives up to the book with my way of thinking, so we won't be concerned about that aspect.
Onto the best scenes of the movie, my personal favorites were of course, the Oppening battle Scene, which is undoubtedly the best battle scene I have ever seen in my life. Though I expect that to change in by the second movie, The Battle of Helms Deep is one contender, the Battle of Isengard of course.
Another scene, which was probably my favorite, the Chase scene with the Wraiths against Arwen and Frodo. I will admit, Arwen, or Liv Tyler did play an extrmely good Glorfindel. This Scene outranks the William Wallace Death Scene in Braveheart for my favorite scene in a movie currently.
Two more scenes that I believed were done INCREDIBLY well, the Flee from Moria, very great scene, the Balrog of course was Impressive, but I am talking about the aftermath of that battle, the way the music kicked in and the sound dulled, slowing down the motion of the film, as the Orcish arrows struck towards Aragorn, each one missing by a few feet.
The other scene which is a contender for best scene of the movie in my view, is the final Battle Scene, from the moment Aragorn tells Frodo to leave and onward "You know I would have gone with you until the end little one, into the very fires of Mordor" or something like that. Aragorn proving that he is indeed Psychotic, not even flinching when attacked by about 700 Orcs. Boromirs death, and Aragorn dismembering and decapitating the Orc Captain. I think most people would agree that this scene was the best, especially from the moment when the Orc Captain shot Boromir for the first time.
On the characters,
Character representations:
Boromir, you can't get much closer to him than that, he did the best job on his Character.
Next is Pippin, the comedic relief in the movie as he was in the book.
Aragorn after leaving Rivendel, before, I didn't think he did a great job hiding as Strider, Strider in the book I saw much more as a menacing character. I believe they could have done a better job during those earlier scenes.
Gandalf, Saruman, Gimli, and Legolas, didn't play the parts as I expected them too, but all the same, I believe they changed my mind on what those characters were indeed like in the actual book. They all were awesome in the battle scenes.
Frodo, though I believe Elijah Wood did an extremely good job in acting out the part, my only complaints are that he didn't seam as tough as the Frodo I picture from the book. I also believe that they focused entirely too much on him and not enough on Merry who I won't even mention.
Sam, He played the role very well, but he seamed a bit, I don't know, simple, or maybe dumb, compared to the Sam I pictured in the book.
The Scenery in the movie is jawdropping, when they showed the entire set of Hobbiton, all the mountains, and fields with the ancient ruins.... There is no movie that tops this, not even Braveheart did this well of a job, not even close. It took me until my third viewing to really appreciate this aspect of the movie, and that was really only because it was much talked about, otherwise, I might not have really taken notice until my 5th or 6th viewing. Though of course, during my first viewing, I was taken surprise by everything, and of course was blown away by all of it.
The pacing was amazing, much different than the book, the book definetly wasn't suspense scene after scene, but it did contain quite a bit. Mostly, it was description of everything they interacted with on their adventures, the scenary, the characters, objects etc... Some people found the book boring, as Tolkien explained in his Forward, and like Tolkien, I of course feel the same way about the books that they believe are great works of art. The Lord of the Rings is perhaps, the only book I will ever truly fall in love with, that is why I have read it as many times as I have seen the movie, 4 times. I am at the point where I have examined the book so thoroughly that all someone has to do is describe a scene or a quote and I will find the paragraph that the scene takes place in or the quote within 30 seconds.
All in all, I don't think that there will be a movie to rival this one at the Academy awards, especially seeing how this one cleaned house at the AFI awards. Febuary and the Nominations are coming quickly, we shall see what happens, hopfully it will still be in theatres at that time, because God knows I'll still be watching it!</div>