The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (1 Viewer)

[Thom B]

Saw it with a number of folks last night. Some had read the books, others hadn't. All had a good time.
On the appearance of Gollum in Moria. As I recall, that was where he appeared in the books as well. I seem to remember the exchange between Frodo and Gandalf about being followed, etc. Then again, it could be the drugs.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Thom, you're right he is there, but Frodo only hears the 'flapping' of his feet and thinks he sees pale eyes in the darkness. I would have been happy to just have that in the film. I'm not sure why PJ chose to expand it so.

 

[CharlesD]

Thom,

I think you are right, its been years since I last read the books, but I'm 90% sure Golum does show up in Moria.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

Finally saw it today. I will write about it later, for now I’m exhausted. Suffice to say that I don’t go to theaters anymore and the rare movies that I see, are the first time viewings, I never go a second time. However I plan to see FOTR again in a theater.

I have not read the book and liked every character. It’s funny how the fans of the books all complain about Galadriel! Anyway I just like it the way it is.

One question; I didn’t get what happened after she was tempted by the ring. What did she say? She has to leave? Why?

 

[Seth Paxton]

okay, i haven't read page 3 or 4 yet, just want to spew out some feelings while it's still fresh.
Lothlorian - huge fubar IMHO, at least in terms of everything else. Where are the warm fuzzies that it gives off as described in the book? It's far too cold and distant, as is Galadrial suddenly.
While she had power, she wasn't psycho. It wasn't just the effect doing it either. The sudden shouting in Frodo's mind just as she was starting to soften felt like "PSYCHO!".
She should have had more earth mother moments just as Lothlorian needed flower child fields of flowers moments as well. The daytime shots of her had that, but we didn't have enough of them and they came too late.
Rivendell - see above. Not as far off but still too sterile. Where's the vitality of the place that seeps into all who visit? This was more like the Pentagon. Just give us 2 minutes in each place and you'd have it.
That being said, both places LOOK correct and are beautiful.
CGI Temptations - horrible. Especially on Bilbo. Things were much better with Gandalf where it was mostly lighting. Galadrial needed less too, although it wasn't WAY off. It didn't help that she was shown has schizo before that. Anyway, it was a mistake, no bones about it.
Frodo's escape - well I liked him sneaking off using the ring to get to the boat, but really the new version worked well here.
Hobbit conspiracy - WTF? Jackson had it and dumped it. In the screen time that they enter with the dialog could have instead been "We were stealing food for the journey. Sam told us all about it. You didn't think we'd let you go alone." That would be much better than thinking 2 hobbits would be willing to just runoff with Sam & Frodo like that.
Cave Troll Good call Peter. Excellent choice.
Moria Dialog I agree, what the hell was with Gimli's attitude coming in. Something that would have been better with some of the original dialog or some stolen from various moments.
Saruman Well he looks like a henchman, but Gandalf gives us dialog suggesting that he thinks he can use the ring for himself. That's really how it was in the book if you recall. Sauron was using him and he was going along with it but thinking "I'll take it myself and turn on him" all along. I think that aspect was still there.
Merry and Pippen as comedy Okay, this was a great choice. It worked very well and really was part of their nature in the books anyway. They become crowd favs and that's good because they need to be for TTT.
River flood I think I prefer it being Elrond and Gandalf doing it, and as it was they still could have used the "I thought I saw white horses." "That was my touch" dialog. Too bad.
Time wasted in places Could have used a throw away line or voice-over to give us the feeling of more time spent in places. I also think they should have had Gandalf give Frodo the idea to leave but not have Frodo leave quite that soon.
Mordor steps The added bit of action was actually great cinema. Everyone laughed at Gimli's "dwarf tossing" joke as well.
The end At first I wasn't sure, but I did like how they did Sam/Frodo after all. Gives the film a dramatic end moment between them and sets the stage for TTT. It was slightly odd to have Aragorn arrive with orcs still there, but the head-removal was worth it. That scene was something the film needed, some heroic victory no matter how small to give the film some resolution.
The eye What can I say, well done, well used.
The opening 2nd best part of the film, IMO. Simply amazing to see in action, especially Sauron's power. That is one bad dude, badder than the Balrog I thought (in the film I mean). I agree that Hugo was much better in those scenes. I didn't mind it being chopped up.
The council I think I would have liked this to go a bit more like the book. I at least would have like to know that other parts of the world were being affected by Sauron already. Maybe the opening should have been moved to that point and all those scenes tied together after all, along with some Gimli/Boromir/Legolas dialog. I would have preferred that to the fight thing. I would have rather seen it as the book, especially Bilbo's line about taking it himself.
Gimli vs Legolas I wish they had kept their rivalry more alive in the film with a bit of dialog between each other directly in Moria and Lothlorian.
Arwen Good change by Jackson. Sets up ROTK and condenses nicely. She was very good in her role. If only Cate had been given the same freedom to have her elvish warmth come across.
There were so many moments just as I'd pictured it though, that it was worth it. I think Gimli could have used some equal time as a badass. Legolas outshone him I thought which goes against their "contest" in TTT, which they damn well better keep. It's some of the great moments of that book (the counting/comparing I mean).

 

[Seth Paxton]

Sam, if the ring is destroyed then all the other ring holders would lose their power as well.
The Elves especially have maintained via the 3 Elven rings. So if the one goes then Lothlorian would fail, and Rivendell.
When elves pass on they go to the western seas and sail off to their "heaven". Gray Havens iirc.
So her passing the test also means she is willing to sacrifice the Elven world for the good of the rest of the world.
Unfortunately the film didn't have time to go into this really which made her dialog a little confusing to the non-readers I thought. I'll bet you aren't the only non-reader thinking "wtf".

 

[Andy_R]

Well, I saw the 11:30 showing this morning, which was the first showing in this area. I found the movie to be very well done and very enjoyable, but I was not blown away like I hoped to be. Perhaps it was a matter of my expectations being too high. That being said, I definitely want to see it again. There is so much going on that it is hard to catch it all in one viewing.

To answer Lou's question about the audiance: The theater was full, but the crowd was very well behaved. There was almost no chatter, and the only outside noise was food chomping and popcorn bag / candy wrapper rustling. I was suprised by the amount of times people left and came back (presumably to use the bathroom). Can't people hold it for 3 hours?

-Andy

 

[Eric Bass]

Mordor steps The added bit of action was actually great cinema.

Just seemed a little too much like they could have done that better but really didn't want to be bothered with finishing that scene so they just came up with the easiest way to finish it. Anyways, that's kind of what I though about the stairway scene. One minute it's what in the world can we do? The next it's just oh, lean forward..ok all good, off we go.

Bottom line, I really think Jackson spent more time visually recreating Tolkien's world then he did in recreating the feel of the story itself. It's very evident in that much time is spent in repeated panning landscape shots of Isengard, mountains, statues, and so on. In a movie that is already moving along at a frantic pace it seems a bit of a waste of time. I have to agree with an earlier comment that the Bashki cartoon in many ways actually feels closer to the books than the movie. The cartoon is significantly shorter yet I think actually spends more time on the characters than Jackson's movie.

 

[Seth Paxton]

I had to potty :b

Trust me I hated to have to do it and felt very bad for being so rude. But both guys on either side of me (strangers) had to as well. I can't remember the last time I left a film for the bathroom, if ever.

For me, I might have tried to hold it if I didn't have another 90 minutes or more to go. Plus having to be there 1 hour ahead of time didn't help. My advice to myself would have been "go right at noon".

 

[Eric Bass]

Oh yes on the elves leaving subject. Basically Elrond and Galadriel each have a ring of power which they use to keep their realms unchanged throughout the ages, if the one is found by Sauron he will conquer all. On the other hand if the one is destroyed their rings lose all their power and as such the forest of lothlorien and the realm of rivendell will fade to become like the rest of the world. In the books they spend a lot of time describing how Lothlorien is like a little piece of a world long gone, with trees and flowers that only exist there now. The books spend a lot of time on the idea that the elves are basically bitter that if the quest succeeds it more or less spells the end for them in middle earth which many have come to love. Going off into the west refers to the Blessed Realm, or Undying Lands, where the gods live and the elves alone can leave middle earth to live. The movie doesn't spend 2 seconds on this which is a bummer, wonder if Legolas' call to the sea will get any screen time? Seeing as how Galadriel didn't even look at him, I'm doubting it.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Did anyone think the big CGI cave troll was a lot better in this movie than Harry Potter?

Yes. I was surprised at how much better, really. I didn't think it would be.

 

[Seth Paxton]

okay, sorry, i'm picking through pages 3 and 4 now.
This quote is dead-on I think

One thing that didn't quite click was the passing of time. Someone else mentioned this earlier and I agree, it didn't really seem like time was passing in the story. That was something Tolkien did *very* well in the books, particularily with Gandalf having been at Weathertop before the Aragorn and company got there. I think it may have helped the audience to digest things a little easier if there was a sense of a large amount of time passing. For someone unfamilar with the universe at all, the "stop! go! stop! go!" nature of the story probably became exhausting as all the events seemed to click right after each other.

I said the same thing to the guy next to me after the film was over. That might be the one big flaw for mainstream success.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I was mightily impressed with the troll. It had purpose, weight, presence. I loved the way it smashed everything out of the way and wrecked the whole room. It's like the people who designed that scene just said "Well, let's make this as difficult for ourselves as possible". When it's head appeared around the pillars, I was convinced it was an on-set creation. Fabulous animation.

And I thought the way Frodo 'died' in the scene was particularly good. You really feel the agony he's going through there.

 

[Ryan Peter]

Seemingly, this movie is playing really well for those who haven't read the book, at least judging by the opinions of folks here. Saying that J6P didn't click with the film is difficult because after seeing the movie it is just so much... Let it get into their heads for a while. If it's a bargain crowd seeing the movie, I consider them different than mainstream J6P, that's more like J12P OK I shouldn't be too hard on them because I also hit the super bargain rate.
Can someone show me the URL to Ron Epstein's review? I liked to read it completely this time.

 

[Kevin Coleman]

Crap Rob,
What do you mean 'Died'? I hope that is not a spoiler. I have three hours yet to wait and see it and I have been spoiler free. I did kind of have an inkling that the end will be sad.
Kevin C.

 

[RobertR]

Beautifully rendered in its look and feel. One feels as if this really IS Middle Earth. The immensity, the utter mass of the evil that threatens the world, is very strongly felt. It was that feeling that imbued the characters with the sense of true drama and genuine heroism I wanted to feel. I could not ask for, or even imagine, a more perfect Gandalf than Ian McKellan. He simply IS the character, and I loved how we got a sense of his power when his voice changed in Bilbo's house.

The only plot point that really stood out for me as feeling different from what I got in the book was the defeat on the mountain which forced them to go into Moria. I had the feeling that it was the Mountain itself which was evil, but the movie potrays the defeat as being the doing of Saruman.

I will see it again this weekend. Good job, Mr. Jackson.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Kevin, let's just say that not everybody makes it.
That's why you have a Fellowship, so someone like a Frodo could die and the rest could keep going.
The quest goes on no matter what, know that for sure.
Robert, funny you mention that. Rob G and I, among others, discussed this at some length in the pre-release thread. I believe Rob or Dan refer to it briefly somewhere in their reviews.
We all basically already knew this change, so I guess it didn't bug us any MORE than it already had months ago.
Same with Arwen, which actually made her change work BETTER for most people I think. We expected terrible and got very good (and weren't shocked by the sudden change).

 

[Bergan Peters]

I saw the 12:01 showing last night. I thought it was OK. It's not the greatest movie. It's DEFINITELY not Star Wars, which is a good thing, because every guy needs his star wars. The movie GRATED on me a lot:
The Wraith screeching made me want to kick Pete Jacksons ass.
The noise that occured around Frodo when he was in the ring's alternate reality were not only HORRIBLY annoying, but that stupid fucking eye should have been called GOZAR. HELLO GHOSTBUSTERS FRIDGE.
The opening battle scene was INCREDIBLE, it reminded me of Braveheart. WEAK lack of blood though. What, people get hit but they dont bleed? Uh, yeah right.
The cinematography was garbage. It was elementary crap and I got VERY tired of it by the end, slow-mo, quick changes, deceptive camera angles, yawn.
The CGI was SOOOOOOO obvious, it made me YEARN for puppets. I wasn't fooled once, unless the wraiths are %100 CGI, and then I was
It was WAY WAY WAY too long, lots of cheesy plot devices, but I enjoyed it more than most.
3/4 stars for the film itself.
(That's more of a review than a discussion, but I want opinion on my opinions, so discuss amongst yourselves
BP

 

[Adam_S]

ohhhhhhh damn..........
Wow, this is why we love film!
Thank you Peter Jackson thank you so much!!!
FOTR blew me away, it exceeded all my expectations in every imaginable way. I've read the books only once, about seven years ago (fifth grade) but they were so vivid then and still now that I've never reread them. As a work of adaptation this ranks up there with Lean's "Great Expectations," Brook's "Lord of the Flies" Wyler's "Ben-Hur" and Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun." I love the way they streamlined things and kept things essential. The hobbits got their barrow down weapons from Strider, rather than Tom, which worked well, Arwen combined with Glorfindel worked very well, the prolouge was excellent, as was the birthday party (though I missed Gandalf's touch at Bilbo's disapearance), the passing of the ring was magnificent, as was Gandalf's finding of its significance. I was a bit disapointed to see the Mushrooms and Farmer Maggot go, and with the lack of a dance at bree (will be interesting to see the rest of that scene in teh directors's cut). I like how they spread out the shadow of the past chapter, with Gandalf telling Frodo the extremely important information that "Bilbo's pity may rule the fate of many" and the gollum discussion in Moria. And even though I knew what would happen, I was on the edge of my seat when the watcher attacks, when Sam follow frodo, when Frodo gets hit in Moria, and when he is stabbed by the wraith. (and now for something completely differnt....)A great film, and instant classic, the best this year.
I skipped school (I'm in highschool and finals are tomorrow and friday how crazy is that ) and arrived at the theater two hours before the start of the 12 oclock showing, noone seemed in line, so I went and browsed suncoast for a thirty minutes or so before returning. about three people were waiting outside the theater, but I just stayed in my car and read a book waiting for hte theater door to open. I went in the theater adn was about hte fith person there, we watied by the ticket tearing stand from about 10:50 until 11:30 and I got to know some of the college kids there, of us first five, we ranged from abou 18-60ish and i figure the crowd that day went from ages 12-70ish (some lucky kid was there for the first shwoing, I bet it's somethign he'll always rmember) I got my favorite seat, fifth row down, seventh seat across, or, as best as i can figure, the exact middle (sweetspot) of the theater. The theater in question was DTS THX certified, although the sound was turned way to low (I like it loud dangit!). There was a slight blemish on the screen where someone had thrown a coke, and I happen to know that it has not been cleaned off, despite that it has been there at least since "Hannibal." The surrounds weren't yet turned on during the trailers but they didn gradually come on, although I think they were set to a lower volume level throughout the theater than the mains. We saw the third ATOC trailer, the new long spider man trailer, and the goldmember trailer, which had everyone rolling (we also saw the scorpion king trailer, which elicited only groans and chuckles at the rock). Everyone shut up at the New Line logo and theater was mostly silent except for when they were supposed to laugh, they laughed at every joke, nothing came across as corny, or was laughed at that shouldn't be. One guy behind me with a loud, long laugh, was the only person laughing when pippin knocked in the skeleton, everyone else was dead silent to see what would happen next. People sniffled and were shocked by Gandalf and Boromir's death, and I led the haphazard applause when thefilm ended, I didn't hear any negative comments, but then, I also stayed through the entire credits.
My two favorite fan boy moments were when Gandalf said, Riddles in the Dark, and when Bilbo sings the Road goes ever onward as he leaves.
weren't there some elves that four hobbits run into when they are leaving hobbiton in the book? I can't seem to remember what they told frodo, but I just realized they are the only thing that I didn't recognize as missing or changed.
One last thing I really loved, was that you really felt for the Cave troll, at the end when he dies, I got a lump in my throat because I saw for the second time the collar and chain he was on (noticed it in passing as it entered) it made me think of King Kong. Jackson and his team really gave the troll character, it had dignity in its death, a worthy enemy, slain.
My only complaint I can think of is that the distorted voice Gandalf and Galadrial use seemed extremely cliche and over the top. Other than that, near perfection!!
Adam

 

[Rob Gillespie]

What do you mean 'Died'? I hope that is not a spoiler.

Yeah they made a big change there. Frodo dies and comes back as an angel saying "Use the force Sam!"