The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring
“You Shall Not Pass!”
If I don’t successfully convey just how epic I
believe this trilogy of films to be I will consider it a personal failure on my
part. Now, let’s talk some epic business!
The Lord of the Rings films are the movie
adaptations based on the beloved fantasy books written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It
follows the story of young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins, who acquires an evil ring of
power and goes on a journey across the mythical land of Middle-Earth, to
destroy it, thus destroying evil forever. Accompanying him from his comfortable
little hobbit-hole (want one!) in The Shire are his three curly-haired friends;
loyal gardener, Samwise Gamgee, troublemakers and comic relief Merry and Pippin
and the iconic Grey Wizard, Gandalf, played superbly by Sir Ian McKellan.
Slightly contradicting the film’s own title, the
Fellowship is only formed in the second half of the movie. Usually, when a film
has a long introduction, I start feeling impatient; however, the first half of
the film has events entertaining enough among very good character development
to keep the spectator’s interest piqued. The incredible prologue describing the
history of the ring, Bilbo’s (Frodo’s Uncle’s) birthday party and a thrilling
chase between a she-elf and the formidable Nazgûl are amongst the attention
grabbing scenes.
When the Hobbit’s reach the safety of the elf haven,
Rivendell, a council is formed to decide what they must do concerning the Ring.
There is only one choice. Enter the lion’s den of evil, Mordor, and cast the Ring
into the fires of Mount Doom (could have been given a more imaginative name, I
feel) – the only place it can be destroyed. And so, the Fellowship is formed,
which includes the four Hobbits, Gandalf, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf,
Boromir, a Human warrior and the Ranger, Aragorn.
Aragorn is a key member of the Fellowship as he is
destined to be the King of Gondor, but strayed from that path, afraid of
following in his ancestor, Isildur’s footsteps, who did not destroy the Ring
when given the chance. If director Peter Jackson had cast the wrong actor to
play Aragorn, this series of films really would have crumbled. Luckily, Viggo
Mortensen smashes it!
Even though the CGI was much more limited when the
film was released in 2001, Peter Jackson has done a good job at creating
realism with his computer generated sets and creatures. Although most of the
locations seen in the movie are real, viewed by awesome, sweeping, aerial
shots, one of the most memorable sequences in the trilogy comes from the
computer generated Mines of Moria. The spectator admires the vast halls and
caverns of the underground city and marvels at the realism of the cave troll
and the enormous Balrog of Morgoth; a formidable opponent for Gandalf the Grey.
At this point in the review I feel as if I need to
mention Howard Shore’s score. He has created, in my opinion, one of the most
memorable and moving soundtracks I have heard; from the chirpy Concerning
Hobbits theme, to the epic Fellowship score everybody associates with these
films, Howard Shore never disappoints. Gandalf’s Fall, coupled with Frodo’s
anguished cry of “NOOOOOOO!” drawn
out in slow-motion had the tears falling, thick and fast.
The movie wraps up with Frodo and Sam leaving for
Mordor alone, Gandalf and Boromir dead and Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli searching
for Merry and Pippin, who had been captured by Uruk-Hai (orcs on steroids).
This is the perfect place for the movie to finish and I know that most people
are probably ready for the three and a half hour long film to end at this point
(the extended version is over four hours!).
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is
a strong start to a very epic trilogy of films that has created an army of
rabid geeky fan boys and girls, as I predicted when I first watched it, and who
would watch the whole twelve hour extended experience with big smiles on their
faces.
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