- Released: 19 December 2001
- Directed by: Peter Jackson
- Running time: 3 h 48 min
- Rating 5/5
Synopsis
A group of nine sets out on a quest to destroy the One Ring of power, to prevent the Dark Lord Sauron from taking over of Middle Earth.
My Thoughts
I could probably just fill this MT with me gushing alone. The Lord of the Rings film trilogy is my favorite movie trilogy of all time. Each of these are such strong movies, so it's going to be hard to differ between them for each Movie Thoughts, but I suppose I'll try.
What can be said about these movies that hasn't already been said? A perfect score, great acting, awesome characters, great effects and makeup even for 2001, a strong story, memorable locations, just all of it is amazing.
So I'm just going to try to find some flaws to point out here, but, believe me, it's very hard. These movies are honestly as close to perfection as we've ever come, if you ask me. I guess that some problems Fellowship has out of the three is that it has too many awkward closeups. Not just in the scenes where we're supposed to feel uncomfortable (see: The Prancing Pony), but also in completely normal scenes when characters are just talking or looking at one another. It just feels a bit awkward, a bit more distance wouldn't hurt.
Not all of the effects (mostly CGI) hold up as well, but most of them really do. I look at Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, which came out in the same year and had a bigger budget, and somehow their effects look worse than this.
The dialogue, despite how different it is from how we talk in real life, just really works. The actors deliver their lines so well and it's not even awkward in the slightest, it just feels genuine.
The designs of everything, from the creatures to the different architecture of the locations, it's just sublime. And, yes, the score is indeed perfect. I have yet to encounter a better soundtrack than that of these movies.
I also just love the characters, especially our main nine. Aside from maybe Legolas, they all feel like real and genuine people that could exist in this world. From innocent Frodo and hardworking Sam to the heir to the throne Aragorn and son of the steward Boromir. Heck, even Gimli, who becomes a comic relief in the last two movies, has some real dignity to him here. He's not above letting his feelings get to him, but he will rise up and face his enemies when the situation calls for it. We also see the beginning of a budding friendship between him and Legolas. Legolas himself unfortunately feels a bit flat. He just delivers exposition dialogue and doesn't have a whole lot to him other than looking cool. There's also so many other characters, from Elrond to Bilbo to Saruman to Galadriel.
I guess I could bring up the lack of female characters in these films. We have only two major female characters introduced in this movie, with one more coming up in Two Towers. Galadriel I really like as one of our major she-elves. She is ages old and incredibly powerful, but still a major character. Arwen was always one of my less favored characters, to be honest. She's kind of interesting in this movie, and I do like her conflict of having to choose between mortality or love, but in the next two movies she basically does nothing besides being dying. I don't need her to be fighting huge battles (I know they filmed her for Battle of Helms Deep but cut those shots), but she could've done something more productive in these movies. She has the makings of an interesting character in Fellowship, but the last two movies just kind of shove her aside. That said, they do introduce me to my favorite female character, Eowyn.
The start to the greatest trilogy of all time is practically perfect, sans some minor problems. Still, I'm giving it a perfect score because I honestly just don't care. Even the things I brought up don't make me dislike this movie in the slightest. I could watch these films and get lost in Middle Earth time and again.
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