Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring review
I saw LOTR:FOTR at a local Imax on December 20th, 2001.
Never having read the books (because, of course, I'm lame and bad), I can't say how this compared. I can however, confirm that it's visually stunning. That the characters are well acted. That at the end I was chanting out loud "A year? I have to wait A YEAR?" for the next part. That I've got to see it again. I'd call in sick tomorrow, but they'd all know where I was.
HOWEVER...
It's really long when you have a splitting headache from not drinking enough, which, since it's three hours, is kind of a hard choice. Do I do the headache, or do I miss part of the film because, you know, I have to GO. :) When Hugo Weaving appears, it is really, really hard not to hear him say "Welcome to Rivendell... MR ANDERSON..." No fault of his, really, I just can't help it. At least one character looked CGI... but most of the CGI characters did NOT, which is pretty stunning, since just about every other film I've seen so far has just not done this right. I was certainly confused by the names and occasionally got the feeling I was missing something subtle.
On slashdot, someone said something about the casting of Sean Bean as Boromir, and if you've seen him in other films, you already know what folks who've read the book know. I'll leave it at that.
This is all nitpicking. Fact is, the Ringwraiths screeched, and I was fully prepared to run away.
The Orcs were dangerous and real.
The Balrog. Is. Freaking. Scary. He ain't CGI. They hired a Balrog. A BIG ONE. I think his name's Simon. Used to do Marketing. That's a little joke: if you're a Balrog reading this, please don't hurt me. Likewise, they actually hired Gandalf to appear in the film.
The sense of a palpable power of evil was strong. And Gollum is Really Disturbing...
Cate. Blanchett. Is. Spectacular.
Continously, though everyone in the world knows there are two films to go, I was convinced they were all gonna die. Soon. And badly.
I said that the film is visually stunning, and I'm not sure if that gets across the point. This thing looks like it was filmed on Middle Earth. There are moments were mystic forces are at work, that, darn it, look like mystic forces at work and not like something I could see in Unreal Tournament.
Anyhow, why are you still reading this when you could be watching the film right now?
UPDATE: The LOTR:FOTR Special Edition on DVD
Now that the Special Edition is out, and that I've actually read the books, let me say this: the Special Edition should have been shown in theaters. The theatrical release loses a LOT that the extra half-hour makes clear, some of which will come up later on in the series and complicate things. (I.e., there are a set of gifts given to the fellowship when they leave Lothlorien, that make a big impact in the second/third books, so how will they explain these things suddenly popping up in the second/third films?)
The Special Edition is a better film. Though I didn't go all out and get the one with the bookmarks, that just seemed a bit silly.