Review by: Jason James
Rating:
The three films as a whole are what all fantasy films of the future will be judged by. The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three sets the tone and is an epic film on its own. It starts out with an excellent introduction to the series that put me in awe right from the start. The sets are beyond expectations and have set a level of perfection that movies in the future will struggle to achieve. Peter Jackson did an excellent job not forgetting the details. As you watch this film you see so many things that could have been left out of the film but Jackson put it on his shoulders to not leave out any details (just forget about Tom, just let it go). This film is full of wonder from start to finish - from Hobbitin - to Rivendell - to Moria - to Lothlorien. If you have not watched this film you should not be reading my reviews because we must have different tastes in movies. This movie really can't be put on a scale as it is in a class of it own.
Review by: Shooter
For space saving reasons and to keep my fingers from cramping up I'm going to only write one review for these three movies as they are really one epic movie anyways and always meant to be that way.
I was chomping at the bit and waiting and waiting for Fellowship to come out. I was so excited that I went to see it on opening day and I almost never do that. Luckily I wasn't disappointed and as Jason said this film and series set the bar to which all other fantasy films will be judged. The biggest problem I had after watching this movies was waiting for the DVD to come out, and then waiting for the extended edition to come out and then waiting for "The Two Towers" Why are these movies so good? Because of the extensive back story that was already there for Peter Jackson to draw from. J.R.R. tolkien created a world with his books that is so detailed a director would have to work to screw it up. Just to give you an idea of the detail set forth in these books and movies Tolkien was a linguist among other things and even invented the languages that are used. That's right, Elven is a real language and Rohan has it's own language based on Old English; in fact, all of the languages in middle earth were created by Tolkien. Peter Jackson did a good job by staying as true to the books as possible and I've yet to meet a LOTR fan who didn't like both. The epic scale of these three movies, wonderful scenery, acting, and plot are second to one in my opinion. I especially liked Ian Mckellan as Gandalf. He played the part perfectly and as in the book was the glue that kept the fellowship together. These movies lacked the cheesiness that the fantasy genre is notable for and made it all believable, no matter how fantastic.
My only quarrel would be the ending of "Return of the King" I would have rather it been more true to the book but I think it would have been a 4 hour movie then.
My recommendation is to buy all three of the extended versions. Instead of the usual useless extra's and a few more minutes of footage some of the extended versions add 45 minutes or more to the movie and put in many more things from the book. the scenes are finished, not black and white or unrendered, and fit seamlessly into the movie. If you like fantasy at all you will love these movies.