News
Books
Writing
Hobbies
Gallery
Links
Email Brian
Email Kerri

Unless otherwise noted,
all material on Heromaker.net
is written by Brian Murphy
© 2006.

Review Archive
  • A.I.

  • America's Sweethearts

  • American Pie 2

  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire

  • Beautiful Mind, A

  • Billy Elliot

  • Blade II

  • Blade: Trinity

  • Boondock Saints, The

  • Bourne Identity, The

  • Brazil

  • Bridge Too Far, A

  • Brotherhood of the Wolf

  • Bubble Boy

  • CQ

  • Casino

  • Cast Away

  • Cool Hand Luke

  • Count of Monte Cristo, The

  • Daredevil

  • Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo

  • Die Another Day

  • Dish, The

  • Dog Soldiers

  • Don't Say a Word

  • Donnie Darko

  • Election

  • Fearless

  • Finding Forrester

  • Flatliners

  • Frighteners, The

  • Full Frontal

  • Gangs of New York

  • Garuda

  • Godfather Trilogy, The

  • Gosford Park

  • Hard Target

  • Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

  • Heist

  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas

  • How to Marry a Millionaire

  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

  • Insider, The

  • Jurassic Park III

  • Kill Bill: Vol. 1

  • Ladyhawke

  • Last Castle, The

  • Legally Blonde

  • Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires, The

  • Life as a House

  • Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The

  • Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The

  • Lost Highway

  • Made

  • Magnificent Seven, The

  • Manhunter

  • Memento

  • Minority Report

  • Miss Congeniality

  • Moulin Rouge!

  • No Retreat, No Surrender

  • Not Another Teen Movie

  • O Brother, Where Art Thou?

  • Ocean's Eleven

  • Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior

  • Others, The

  • Pollack

  • Punisher, The

  • Queen of the Damned

  • Rat Race

  • Recruit, The

  • Reservoir Dogs

  • Ring, The

  • Royal Tenenbaums, The

  • Score, The

  • Seven Year Itch, The

  • Shadow of the Vampire

  • Signs

  • Six Degrees of Separation

  • Some Like It Hot

  • Species

  • Spider-Man

  • Spy Game

  • Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones

  • Stepford Wives, The

  • Swordfish

  • Training Day

  • Transformers: The Movie

  • Transporter, The

  • Tron

  • Troy

  • Truman Show, The

  • Unbreakable

  • Verdict, The

  • Windtalkers

  • Wonderboys

  • X-Files: Fight the Future, The

  • X-Men

    		•

    FILMS

    The Lord of the Rings
    The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  • Starring Elijah Wood, Sir Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Hugo Weaving, Sean Bean, Ian Holm, Andy Serkis

  • Directed by Peter Jackson

  • Based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien

    • Director Peter Jackson has done the near-impossible. He's undertaken arguably the biggest film ever (with a fanbase who are capable of painfully minute scrutiny); pulled nearly $300 million from New Line Cinema's grubby hands to film all three books at once; and used an incredibly small New Zealand-based special effects crew to manage the Herculean tasks put before them by this script.

    And not only did he do the near-impossible, but he did it with aplomb—somehow walking the fine line of being able to satisfy both the "Hollywood Suits" and the raging fanboys. Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring is a film with the grace and elegance and feeling of a sweeping epic worthy of Tolkien's trilogy.

    The story is nearly half a century old and still holds up well in the telling. A Hobbit, Frodo Baggins (Wood), is tasked with carrying a powerful ring to Mt. Doom—far in the Enemy's lands of Mordor—and cast it in the fires of the volcano there, thus destroying it. Accompanying the young Ring Bearer on his quest is Aragorn the Ranger (Mortensen), the faithful Hobbit Sam (Astin), Gimli the Dwarf Prince (Rhys-Davies), the Hobbits Merry (Monaghan) and Pippin (Boyd), Legolas the Elf (Bloom), Boromir of Gondor (Bean), and Gandalf the Grey (McKellen). But their journey is frought with danger and enemies, sent by Sauron—the Dark Lord who wishes to wear the One Ring, giving him the power to dominate and enslave all of Middle-earth.

    This is a fairly straight-forward telling of Tolkien, leaving behind much of the lollygaging and broad exposition done in the first 200 pages of the book. This film is slightly different than the book, so purists may not like it—however, I found that the changes were necessary to keep an even cinematic pace and critical if this film was going to have a running time under 12 hours. The fact of the matter is: film is a different medium than cinema and there will never be such a film that is both a direct adaptation and a good movie. Such a beast won't exist. This film is faithful to the book's, and that is more than sufficient.

    Having said all of that: This movie rocked. It rocked for two hours and 58 minutes. During the first 15 minutes of Rings I sat back in awe of how totally and completely Jackson had managed to capture the spirit of Middle-earth. From the scenery to the costumes to the character's mannerisms to the cultures of the myriad peoples—this movie rocked. Battle scenes and tender moments alike were treated with the utmost taste and respect towards the source material. In case you didn't hear me the first few times, this movie rocked.

    It's very rare when I leave the movie theater (or turn off the VCR/DVD player) and feel like I've just been allowed to experience something wonderful. Lord of the Rings was a treat, a true joy to watch. And when the movie was over, I wanted to see it again.

    This sort of feeling doesn't happen often, folks.

    The CGI and special effects were seamless, as far as I could tell. There was never a moment when I noticed they were shooting against a bluescreen, and the proportions for hobbit to human were not only accurate, but enjoyable to watch and be reminded just how little hobbits actually are. The Ring-Wraiths scared the crap out of me with their high-pitched shrieking, and the opening battle scene with Sauron wasting 15 and 20 guys at a time was fearsome.

    (Fair spoiler warning: Stop reading if you haven't seen the movie yet. It's not that I'm going to give any surprises away, but it's just better to enjoy the movie itself without having me point out all the good parts beforehand.)

    So many actors in this film nailed their parts, and the film itself is gorgeous—the only reason that Rings might not sweep the Oscars next year is because the Academy is a bunch of blind-smelly trolls with shit for brains. But let's leave all of that aside. Oscar-talk is silly business—let's just enjoy the film, regardless of awards.

    I could go on and on, ad naseum, about how well I thought the actors portrayed their parts—Elijah Wood delivered the courage and naivete that playing Frodo requires; Viggo Mortensen has the rough personal features of a ragged Ranger, yet beneath is a very Kingly person; and when Sean Bean's Boromir falters, we feel for him. This cast was fantastic. But there are two who I would like to point out.

    First he gets to play Magneto in X-Men and now Gandalf the Grey. Just how lucky is Sir Ian McKellen? McKellen brings out Gandalf's strong and decisive nature, yet not so much to overshadow the tenderness Gandalf has towards the Hobbits. When the Company is in Elrond's house and Frodo has stepped forward to say he will take the ring to Mordor, Gandalf closes his eyes and in that look you can see that he wishes that this burden would not come upon the young Hobbit again. And later, as Gandalf is standing on the bridge, barring the way of the Balrog and shouts defiantly, "None shall pass!" and slams his staff and sword in ground—holy crap! I get chills just thinking about it.

    And last but not least is Sam Gamgee. He's always been one my favorite characters in the book. There's something incredibly noble about the friend who sticks to his promise of protection. When Sam says, "I'll not leave your side, Frodo," you know that he absolutely won't. He'll be dead before he breaks that promise. Sam is the steadfast friend that, though lesser in mental capacity than the rest of the group, has a heart the size of Middle-earth. He's simple and proud and extremely protective of Frodo. I like that quality, perhaps because we see it so little in this world. Sometimes friends come and go, and sometimes you're uncertain where you stand with relatives or acquaintances—but not with Frodo and Sam. It is not something to second-guess. It simply is. I like that. In fact, I like that a lot. Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend as Sam.

    I've heard some people complain about the length of this movie, and movies that are over 90 minutes, in general. This is not something that I've ever understood. If it's a stinker, get up and leave; if it's good, you're getting more for your money! So stop complaining. But no worries with Rings, the three hours passes quickly.

    Do yourself a favor: Ignore the hype and the advertising who all tell you to go see this film; ignore the popularity and the geeks (present company excluted, of course) who tell you to go see this film; and just go see it. Settle yourself comfortably in your seat and enjoy one of the best cinematic treats to come along in a long while.