Lord of The Rings Review (1 Viewer)

[Mark Cappelletty]

I'm going to be very brief as it's close to midnight and I have to finish a book for work before I go to bed. As I work for, ahem, New Line Cinema, we had an employee screening of a certain film tonight in Sherman Oaks, CA at the new Pacific Theaters there.

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is amazing. The visuals are astonishing, with worlds you couldn't even imagine in your head coming to vivid life. The casting is spot-perfect and the acting solid. While the FX are jaw-droppingly good (and by and large organic-looking and not just obvious CG, particularly in the Cave Troll sequence), what's so nice about the film is the emotional depth to the proceedings; when tragedy strikes, you feel it.

As I haven't read the books since high school, I'm not sure how close it hews to the original material, but my friend said that while there were a few minor changes, it's fairly accurate. It's surprisingly dark and nasty at times; there's very little in the way of cutesy Harry Potter antics. Fear and uncertainty play a large part in how the characters react to their situations; the piece is refreshingly mature.

The three-hour running time is not a deterrent; the consensus of most of the crowd was that we wanted to see the next six hours right away-- and not have to wait two years to see this all through!

See this in the biggest, loudest theater that you can. The low-end bass in our theater was astonishing. Coming from a professed movie cynic (whose faith in film has only been recently validated by such gems as "Amelie" and "Donnie Darko"), this is a terrific picture and almost -- almost -- makes me forget "Dungeons & Dragons."

 

[Tom Ryan]

Ok, BUSTER! I'm sick of all these reviews that dance around the REALLY good stuff..........what did you think of the Balrog's appearance, the Mines Of Moria and the battle, Lothlorien, etc.??? C'mon, give us the GOODS! Not the specifics, just what your impression of the really great scenes is (don't forget Weathertop!) !!
-Tom

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Tom (and others),
I'm determined to keep this all not only spoiler-free but content-free if only to make your enjoyment of the film even greater. I'm a stickler for bad FX (i.e. The "Scorpion-Rock" at the end of "The Mummy Returns" which took me out of the film) and I can say without any hesitation that the worlds envisioned here are just about as amazing as you could possibly imagine. You could ask me any number of questions and my answer is going to be "it's amazing." The Balrog is astonishingly scary, the Mines enormous and harrowing, etc.
I'll throw you one bone, however:
As the poster already gives his presence away, you do get a brief glimpe of Gollum, who seems to be a cross between Yoda, a lemur and one of those scary Medieval engravings of deformed people.
That's as much as you're getting from me!

 

[TerryRL]

Thanks for the review. I'm really amped to see this movie and I'm glad Jackson went with a long run time for it. Hopefully, the movie will draw mainstream audiences as well as the fanboys.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Mark, one question.
I know that there is no Old Forest, Bombadil or Barrow-Downs sequences in the film (unless you can enlighten us), but there's one scene which we've heard practically nothing about over the past two years: The warg attack after the Fellowship's retreat from Caradhras and before they approach Moria.
Is this scene in the film?
Feel free to go into as much detail as you like.

 

[Dominik Droscher]

The best review I have seen so far:
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=10880

 

[Chris Dugger]

Weelllllllll................
I would have to say that another very good review is up @: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/sneak/sneak.html
and I can voucher for this review, because I was there...
LOR:FOTR was everything I wished for.
Dugger

 

[Lou Sytsma]

C'mon Chris. How about sharing some more of your own thoughts! How can you contain yourself! You have eager listeners here!

 

[GregoryP]

Oh I can hardly wait! I knew Peter Jackson wouldn't let us down, but it's always good to hear that confirmed. I picked up the soundtrack yesterday and it's excellent.
Gregory

 

[Artur Meinild]

I'm really curious about this: How much elven is spoken in the movie?

 

[BrianShort]

I read one review this morning, and promptly forgot which one, that mentioned most of Arwen's dialogue is in Elvish.

BTW Ron has updated his review with some comments about the performances.

Brian

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Artur,

There's plenty of Elvish (not to be confused with Elvis) spoken in the film.

Rob,

What?! Wargs? Huh? I haven't read the books since high school (I'm 32) so I'm not sure what you mean. Let's just say there's one big action sequence after a brief lull that follows the Mines of Moria scenes.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Wargs are big-ass wolves. In the book they get attacked by a pack of wargs inbetween their attempt on the mountain and before they try to enter Moria.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Rob,

The film is warg-free, I'm afraid. But there's positively NO lack of action-- it's got the best sword-swinging battle combat since the heyday of "Excalibur" and "Conan The Barbarian."

 

[Marshall Alsup]

DAMN, you guys are killing me!!

I cant wait!

marshall

 

[Dominik Droscher]

I am sure we will see Wargs in the Two Towers at the Helm's Deep battle. Orcs like to ride on them.

 

[Kevin Coleman]

I just downloaded the soundtrack to sample. It is awesome I am listening to it now. It is pretty dark and brooding much like Gladiator or Titus. I think I will definitely go buy this CD. December 19th can't come fast enough.
Kevin C.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Obviously Mark is then referring to the escape to Lothlorian when the Elves kick some orc butt. Lots of arrow flying action if I remember one review correctly.

I fully expect there to be "great liberties" taken with the story in terms of exacting detail, but for it to remain faithful overall tone and the points of scenes.

An example is the clear change with the Dark Rider almost catching them at the river and barely stopping his horse short. Not in the book, BUT it seems like it will give that "barely escaping, harrowing fear" that they constantly feel while trying to get to Buckland and then Bree.

My guess is that the warg scene simply did not add to the effect of their chase with all the other action taking place. They are already getting chased by birds, an avalanche dropped on them, and I think the lake monster, so I can see how there would be no need of yet another problem before dealing with Moria.

The key is simply to tell the audiance that the Fellowship has a real need to face up to Moria despite desperately not wanting to. If that message comes across then PJ has succeeded there.

It sounds like the rhythm of fear, safety, fear, safety is maintained well, that's good.

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Here is a link to an excellent review of the soundtrack.
http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=88
Kevin C.

 

[Michael Dueppen]

I just read Ron's review. That and this thread has me so amped for this movie...