The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

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Traveta reviews

The Lord of the Rings:
The Fellowship of the Ring
(Widescreen Version)
Distributed by
New Line Cinema

    Cover

  • Cert: PG-13
  • Cat.no: N5542
  • Running time: 178 minutes
  • Year: 2001
  • Pressing: 2002
  • Region(s): 1, NTSC
  • Chapters: 40
  • Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 (Eng only)
  • Languages: English, French
  • Subtitles: English
  • Widescreen: 2.35:1
  • 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
  • Macrovision: Yes
  • Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
  • Price: $29.95
  • Extras: Welcome to Middle Earth documentary, Quest for the Ringdocumentary, A Passage to Middle Earth documentary, 15 featurettes,Behind-the-scenes preview of The Two Towers, music video, theatricaltrailer, TV spot, preview of The Two Towers Playstation 2 game, and alook at the extended Fellowship DVD.

    Director:

      Peter Jackson

Screenplay:

    Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Frances Walsh

Cast:

    Frodo Baggins: Elijah Wood
    Gandolf: Ian McKellen
    Strider: Viggo Mortensen
    Sam: Sean Astin
    Arwen: Liv Tyler
    Boromir: Sean Bean
    Galadriel: Cate Blanchet
    Bilbo Baggins: Ian Holm
    Saruman: Christopher Lee

Lord of the Rings(which will be refered to as “Fellowship” from here onout) is the film that finally got director Peter Jackson intomainstream. How can you not go mainstream when your movie has grossed somuch money? Peter Jackson gave us Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles,The Frighteners,Heavenly Creatures, Dead Alive, and most recently:Fellowship of the Ring. Bad Taste is still my favorite of his films butFellowship is an awesome entry for him. His patened camera angles arehere and his highly styilized sense of shot is present as well. Choosinghim was a great choice. This movie wouldn’t have the same feel if StevenSpielberg or George Lucas directed it. Anyway, let’s get to the reviewsince alot of people already knew all that.

Fellowship of the Ring is adapted from J. R. R. Tolkien’s classictrilogy. The first addition of the movie trilogy tells the tale of aworld called Middle Earth. There, many creatures and races exist likeHobbits, Men, Elves, among others. Years ago a terrible war was foughtthere where Sauron has forged a master ring to control all the ringsalready given to kings and queens. The ring gives him awesome power ashe uses it to try to conquer the free peoples of Middle Earth. An armymade of elves and men fight against Sauron and destroy him. The ringthough misses it’s chance to be destroyed once and for all but it findsanother owner. Over the years it finds more owners, Golem and BilboBaggins. The ring possesses them and they can’t give it up. Golem losesit when Bilbo finds it and keeps it for sixty years.

Sixty years later,Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) leaves Hobbitton for adventures and gives thering reluctantly to Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). Gandolf (Ian McKellan)the wizard agrees to watch over Frodo as Bilbo departs. The ring isbeing hunted by Sauron’s horsemen the Orcs. Gandolf tells Frodo to go toMount Doom, the only place where the ring can be destroyed. What followsis the building of a Fellowship of nine sworn to protect and ultimatelydestroy the ring before Sauron can retrieve it again.

Fellowship is this generation’sStar Wars.With it’s fictional andvaried characters and great locations, this will be one for generations.Thank God not many people remember the animated version of this (Iwatched it after seeing Fellowship in the theater, ugh) which PALES incomparison. I know they’re both different animals but it’s hard to watchthe animated version after seeing this one. Call me crazy but I didn’tbuy into the hype surrounding the release two weeks before it. In fact,

I thought the movie would bomb as I didn’t think people were into thistype of thing anymore. So I went on opening night ten minutes before itstarted and my theater was practically sold out. I had to sit in thethird row from the screen, no wonder I didn’t care for it then. But I’mhappy to say I like it a lot now. Anyway, this is a very good film and notjust for fanboys or fans of the books, I think everyone can watch thisand find something enjoyable.

Into the disc. Fellowship is widescreen at 2.35:1. a seperate fullframe transfer is available but why anybody would want that is beyondme. The video was expected to be good, especially from New Line, andthey have not let anybody down. Cramming this movie all onto one discand having it look as good as it does is an accomplishment in itself.But it’s not perfect. The only thing that keeps it from being perfect issome MINOR pixelization. Most noticed on solid colors in the background.But nothing that could waver you from enjoying the movie.

The sound is perfect however. Very booming. Watch the battle withSauron at the beginning or the cave troll sequence. This is a very loudsoundtrack that will make many systems work. Surprisingly there is not aDTS track but New Line is probably saving that for the extended versiondue out in November.

The extras are mostly comprised of featurettes and documentaries. NewLine also previews the extended version DVD, it also features a tenminute look at The Two Towers. A music video is also included and thepreview of the Two Towers PS2 game is also included. New Line is holdingout on the regular stuff as the extended version features 2 discs offeatures. None of these extras will be included on the extended versionon November 12th (along with Star Wars-Episode II, it’s going to be anexpensive Fall for a lot of you).

Overall, most people will buy this film regardless of critic’s viewsbut in case it’s depending on my opinion then I would buy it. Despitethe extras, the movie is great as is the sound. This is also the onlyplace you can get the theatrical version because the extended versionhas thirty minutes put back in. Definitely pick this one up.

FILM CONTENT
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS


OVERALL
Review copyright © Traveta, 2002.

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